Unit

100 Adjectives and adverbs 1 (quick/quickly)

A You can say:
Our holiday was too short – the time passed very quickly.
Two people were seriously injured in the accident.
Quickly and seriously are adverbs. Many adverbs are adjective + -ly:
adjective quick serious careful bad heavy terrible
adverb quickly seriously carefully badly heavily terribly
For spelling, see Appendix 6.
Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. Some adjectives end in -ly too, for example:
friendly lively elderly lonely lovely
It was a lovely day.

B Adjective or adverb?

Adjectives (quick/careful etc.) tell us about a Adverbs (quickly/carefully etc.) tell us about
noun (somebody or something). We use a verb (how somebody does something or
adjectives before nouns: how something happens):
Sam is a careful driver. Sam drove carefully along the narrow
(not a carefully driver) road. (not drove careful)
We didn’t go out because of the heavy We didn’t go out because it was raining
rain. heavily. (not raining heavy)

Compare:

She speaks perfect English. She speaks English perfectly.

adjective + noun verb + noun + adverb

C We use adjectives after some verbs, especially be, and also look/feel/sound etc.
Compare:

Please be quiet. Please speak quietly.

My exam results were really bad. I did really badly in the exam.
Why do you always look so serious? Why do you never take me seriously?
I feel happy. The children were playing happily.

D You can also use adverbs before adjectives and other adverbs. For example:
reasonably cheap (adverb + adjective)
terribly sorry (adverb + adjective)
incredibly quickly (adverb + adverb)
It’s a reasonably cheap restaurant and the food is extremely good.
I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t mean to push you.
Maria learns languages incredibly quickly.
The exam was surprisingly easy.
You can also use an adverb before a past participle (injured/organised/written etc.):
Two people were seriously injured in the accident. (not serious injured)
The conference was badly organised.

200 Adjectives after be/look/feel etc. ➜ Unit 99C Adjectives and adverbs 2 ➜ Unit 101
 Unit
Exercises 100
100.1 Complete each sentence with an adverb. The first letters of the adverb are given.
1 We didn’t go out because it was raining he avily .
2 I had no problem finding a place to live. I found a flat quite ea .
3 We had to wait a long time, but we didn’t complain. We waited pat .
4 Nobody knew that Simon was coming to see us. He arrived unex .
5 Mike keeps fit by playing tennis reg .
6 I don’t speak French very well, but I can understand per if people speak
sl and cl .
100.2 Put in the correct word.
1 Sam drove carefully along the narrow road. (careful / carefully)
2 I think you behaved very . (selfish / selfishly)
3 The weather changed . (sudden / suddenly)
4 There was a change in the weather. (sudden / suddenly)
5 Liz fell and hurt herself really . (bad / badly)
6 I think I have flu. I feel . (awful / awfully)
7 Tanya is upset about losing her job. (terrible / terribly)
8 I could sit in this chair all day. It’s very . (comfortable / comfortably)
9 I explained everything as as I could. (clear / clearly)
10 Be careful on that ladder. It doesn’t look very . (safe / safely)
11 Have a good trip and I hope you have a journey. (safe / safely)
12 I’m glad you had a good trip and got home . (safe / safely)
100.3 Complete each sentence using a word from the box. Sometimes you need the adjective (careful
etc.) and sometimes the adverb (carefully etc.).
careful(ly) complete(ly) dangerous(ly) financial(ly) fluent(ly)
frequent(ly) nervous(ly) perfect(ly) permanent(ly) special(ly)

1 Sam doesn’t take risks when he’s driving. He’s always careful .
2 He’s late sometimes, but it doesn’t happen .
3 Maria’s English is very although she makes quite a lot of mistakes.
4 I cooked this meal for you, so I hope you like it.
5 Everything was very quiet. There was silence.
6 I tried on the shoes and they fitted me .
7 I’d like to buy a car, but it’s impossible for me at the moment.
8 I’m staying here only a few weeks. I won’t be living here .
9 Do you usually feel before exams?
10 Dan likes to take risks. He lives .
100.4 Choose two words (one from each box) to complete each sentence.
absolutely badly completely changed cheap damaged
happily reasonably seriously enormous ill long
slightly unnecessarily unusually married planned quiet

1 I thought the restaurant would be expensive, but it was reasonably cheap .

2 Will’s mother is in hospital.
3 This house is so big! It’s .
4 It wasn’t a serious accident. The car was only .
5 Our children are normally very lively, but they’re today.
6 When I returned home after 20 years, everything had .
7 The movie was . It could have been much shorter.
8 I’m surprised Amy and Joe have separated. I thought they were .
9 A lot went wrong during our holiday because it was .

➜ Additional exercise 31 (page 320) 201