Adjective or Adverb

Defining “adjective” and “adverb” is much easier than remembering the correct usage for these parts of speech.

An adjective is a part of speech that modifies, defines or changes a noun.
* The dress is red. The dress is red and long. The dress is red, long and fancy. In each case, the noun being modified is “dress”; and “red”, “long” and “fancy” describe or modify dress. Can you see the different dresses in your imagination? With each sentence, the dress “looks” different because of the different adjectives used to describe it.

An adverb is a part of speech that modifies, defines, or changes a verb. Usually, an adverb ends with the suffix “-ly”, but not always.

• The girl ran quickly. The adverb quickly describes how the girl ran.
• The man stood still. Here the adverb still describes how the man stood, but the adverb in this case does not end in “-ly”.

Of course, there are more rules (and the usual exceptions to the rules) for using adjectives and adverbs. There will be more examples in future posts. If you are not quite sure that your writing properly uses these words, make sure to contact the professional writers and editors at Writing It Right For You for assistance.