Adjectives and adverbs
What is the difference between an adverb and an adjective? When and how do we use adjectives an adverbs?
Adjectives
- What are adjectives?
- Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives bigger, older, more expensive, . . .
+ handout version 🖨 - Possessive adjectives and pronouns my, mine, your, yours, . . .
- Adjectives ending in ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’
- Adjectives for probability likely, certain, inevitable, . . .
(see Stuart’s article How to use: adjectives for probability)
Adverbs
- What are adverbs?
- Adverbs of frequency – word order always, never, usually, . . .
- Adverbs of manner: list of 50
- Irregular adverbs well, fast, . . .
- Intensifiers
Practise this grammar
Elementary vocabulary exercise: opposites of adjectives
Elementary vocabulary exercise: -ed or -ing adjectives
Elementary grammar exercise: when to use an adverb or adjective
Intermediate grammar exercise: regular and irregular adverbs
demonytitan - November 26, 2015, 12:25 pm
Hello I am a new student, and I need some information about how to order in grades adjetives.
I mean examples using adverbs before: fairly, quite, rather, very, extremely.
I know which is the order but I don’t know the rules. For example, fairly-quite-rather mean the same: bastante. Then, why fairly goes first if we ordenate in less grade?
Thank you very much.
Sincerely
Demonytitan
Alphonse - December 26, 2015, 11:16 pm
Hi,
The only way I can find to explain this is that one cannot compare meanings or degrees in translation.
First off, if you had three words in Spanish which were similar, but not exactly alike in meaning or degree, to “bastante”, then you would understand. The fact that there isn’t a corresponding translation to each individual word but one for several, does not mean that they mean exactly the same, in this case, “bastante”. The same happens with other words coming from Spanish to English, where there are several words with slightly different meaning in Spanish but we only have one word in English. It happens in all languages, in both directions.
Then again, the word “bastante” can mean enough (suficiente) or too much (demasiado), so in itself it has at least two degrees of quantity, where “Comi bastante” could mean “I ate enough; I feel good” or “I ate too much; I think I’m going to be sick”.
So, one word with two very different degrees opposed to three words with slightly different degrees.
I hope this helped you understand things better, mostly that one cannot expect to find a word-for-word translation from one language to another, and that we have to understand and adapt oneself to the nuances of each language.
Cheers.