Adjectives and adverbs

Catherine
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Grammar with me, Catherine.

Finn
And me, Finn. Hello.

Catherine
In this programme we’re talking about adjectives and adverbs.

Finn
We’ll tell you what they are and how they’re used.

Catherine
We’ll give you some tips to help you understand the difference between them.

Finn And we’ll also have a quiz to test your understanding.

Catherine
Right. Let’s get started. Finn, can you tell us about adjectives first.

Finn
OK. Certainly, let’s start with a simple example. What am I holding up?

Catherine
You’ve got two biscuits, Finn . One is plain and one is chocolate .

Finn
Yes. Do you like both?

Catherine I do.

Finn Me too. In that sentence there were two adjectives, plain and chocolate . What do those words do?

Catherine
Well, Finn. Those words describe the biscuits.

Finn That’s right. Adjectives are describing words: they tell us about nouns. In this case they tell us about the biscuits. A plain biscuit. A chocolate biscuit.

Catherine
Fantastic. What else do adjectives describe?

Finn
Lots of things. They can also describe pronouns. Listen out for the adjective happy in this example. Here’s Neil

Neil
Peter played well. After the game he was happy.

Finn
The adjective happy - what did that refer to?

Catherine It referred to the pronoun he , which in this example was Peter.

Finn Yes, Peter was happy . He was happy . He was a happy Peter.

Catherine So adjectives are words that give us information or additional information about nouns. When it comes to adverbs there is a bit of a clue in the name, isn’t there, Finn? Ad - verb, add information about a verb.

Finn That is one thing that adverbs do. They give us information about verbs. They can tell us how someone does something or how something happens. Now, let’s listen again to the example. As well as the adjective happy there’s also an adverb in the sentence. What is it?

Neil Peter played well . After the game he was happy .

Catherine The adverb there was well . Peter played well . The word well isn’t describing Peter himself: it’s describing how he did what he did.

IDENT
You’re listening to BBC Learning English.

Catherine And we’re talking about adjectives and adverbs.

Finn We’ve seen that adjectives describe nouns and adverbs talk about verbs.

Catherine You mentioned that referring to verbs was only one thing that adverbs do. So, where else can we use them?

Finn Adverbs can also describe adjectives, and even other adverbs. Remember the biscuits?

Catherine
I’m looking at them right now, Finn.

Finn Look good, don’t they?

Catherine They do!

Finn
What do you feel when you see the biscuits?

Catherine I feel hungry!

Finn Is hungry an adjective or adverb?

Catherine It is an adjective because it’s describing me, my feeling - and I’m a noun!

Finn You are a noun! And now if I ask you how hungry you are, what would you say?

Catherine Well the chocolate biscuit in particular is making me feel very hungry.

Finn Very hungry. Very . Hungry. What is the word very referring to? Is it you, the noun?

Catherine No, it’s the adjective hungry .

Finn Exactly. Very is an adverb. So as well as adding information about verbs, adverbs can also tell us about adjectives. And they can even tell us about other adverbs. Let’s hear our earlier example again please, Neil?

Neil Peter played well. After the game he was happy.

Finn Remember that the word well is an adverb. But how well did Peter play?

Neil Peter played really well .

Finn That’s right. So here the word really is telling us about the adverb well . How well ? Really well . Really is also an adverb.

Catherine So adverbs can tell us about verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

Finn And adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. And now, it’s quiz time.

Catherine We are going to give you a word, and read a sentence which contains the word. You need to decide if the word we give you is an adjective or an adverb.

Finn OK. So, here’s the first one. The word is blue and here’s the sentence.

Catherine The sky is dark blue . The sky is dark blue .

Finn So, is blue an adjective or adverb?

Catherine It’s an adjective. Blue is describing the noun sky. Now number two: it’s actually the same sentence but this time, think about the word dark . Is dark an adjective or an adverb?

Finn The sky is dark blue.

Catherine Right. So, is dark an adjective or adverb?

Finn Dark here is an adverb. Now number three. This time there are three words to listen out for: delicious , very and slowly - are they adjectives or adverbs?

Catherine Catherine ate the delicious biscuit very slowly .

Finn No, she didn’t. She ate it very fast. But, did you get them? Delicious is an adjective. It describes the noun biscuit.

Catherine Slowly is an adverb.

Finn And finally, very is also an adverb.

Catherine So that’s our introduction to adjectives and adverbs

Finn
There’s more about this on our website at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again for soon more 6 Minute Grammar.

Both
Bye.

STING