FluencyLab
GrammarHub
Use adjectives to describe nouns and states. Use adverbs of manner to describe how an action happens.
Overview
Use adjectives to describe nouns and states. Use adverbs of manner to describe how an action happens.
Form and rules
Many adverbs of manner are made with adjective + -ly: slow → slowly, careful → carefully.
Use an adverb to describe an action verb: She speaks quietly.
Use an adjective after linking verbs such as be, look, feel, smell, sound, and taste: The soup smells good.
Good is an adjective; well is the usual adverb: a good singer / she sings well.
Some common words have the same adjective and adverb form, such as fast and hard.
A closer look
Adverbs of manner describe how an action happens. Many are formed by adding -ly to an adjective: careful → carefully, slow → slowly.
After linking verbs such as be, look, feel, smell, and taste, use an adjective to describe the subject. Good has the irregular adverb well.
Examples
He's a careful driver.
He drives carefully.
The music sounds beautiful.
She speaks English well.
The train moves fast.
Common mistakes
Use an adverb to describe how she drives.
Smell is a linking verb here, so use an adjective.
Ready to practise?
The test combines multiple choice, gap completion, error correction, and sentence building so students have to recognise and produce the grammar, not simply reread the rule.