Adverbs of manner (slowly) or adjectives (slow)?

Adverbs of manner (slowly) or adjectives (slow)?

Exercise 1

Choose adjectives or adverbs of manner to complete the following sentences.

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1 Peter is a carefullycareful driver. He drives very carefulcarefully.

2 Turtles walk slowlyslow because they are slowlyslow animals.

3 A cautiouscautiously person usually speaks cautiouscautiously.

4 They are quietquietly; they are speaking quietquietly.

5 Gordon plays very goodwell. He is a goodwell player.

6 He did a brilliantlybrilliant exam. He passed the exam brilliantlybrilliant.

7 We had heavyheavily snow yesterday. It snowed heavilyheavy.

8 He looked at me angryangrily. He has a very angryangrily look.

9 We slept comfortablecomfortably in our comfortablecomfortably bed.

10 He plays badbadly because he is a badlybad player.

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Adverbs of manner

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Adverbs of manner: Use

We use adverbs of manner after a verb to describe the verb. We use an adverb of manner to say how something happens or how we do something.

• It rained heavily. (=We are describing how it rained.)
• He always replies quickly. (=We are describing how he replies)

Adverbs of manner: Position

We use adverbs of manner after the verb or, if there is an object, after verb + object.

• He drives carefully.
• She plays the guitar well. 

Very, really, quite

We can use very, really, quite before an adverb of manner.

• It rained quite heavily. 
• He drives quite carefully. 
• She plays the guitar really well.

Adjectives

We use adjectives before a noun or after the verb be.

• This is an expensive guitar. 
• This guitar is expensive. 

Adverbs of manner vs adjectives

Difference

We use adjectives to describe a noun (before a noun or after the verb be), and we use adverbs of manner to describe a verb (after the verb or verb + object). Compare:

• Robert plays the guitar well. (=We are describing the verb, i.e. how Robert plays the guitar.)
• Robert is a good guitar player. (=We are describing the noun, Robert.)
• Sara eats slowly. 
• Sara is a slow eater. 

For a common mistake with good and well, see our dictionary entry on good.

Adjectives ending in -ly

Some words end in -ly, but they are adjectives, NOT adverbs: friendly, lovely, silly. We CANNOT transform these adjectives into adverbs of manner.