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Adjectives & Adverbs

Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. Note that adjectives can be possessive, indefinite, numerical, or compound, among other things. Articles also act as adjectives.

serious student
brilliant rainbow
enchanted smile
possessive: her time, their book deal
indefinite: any day
numerical: thirteenth floor, one doughnut
compound: marinated duck quesadilla
articles: a book, an egg, the clock

Coordinate adjective work together to modify a noun. Coordinate adjectives do not modify each other and are placed before the noun they modify. Use a comma to separate coordinate adjectives.

The juicy, sweet watermelon cooled everyone off.

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, and they often end with –ly.

modifying a verb : She walked quickly to school.

modifying an adjective : He became an exceptionally quick learner.

modifying another adverb : She ran unbelievably fast.

Place adverbs such as almost, even, and only with care to avoid confusion.

Instead of : The movie almost ended before the stroke of midnight.

Use : The move ended almost before the stroke of midnight.

Most adjectives and some adverbs can take several forms: the positive, comparative, and superlative forms.

Positive Comparative Superlative
calm calmer calmest
quiet quieter quietest
good better best
obvious more obvious most obvious

Use the comparative form to compare two things. Use the superlative form to compare three or more things.

Comparative: The mockingbird sang louder than the sparrow.

Superlative: Of all the birds in her yard, the mockingbird sang loudest.

Question

Choose the sentence with an adjective or adverb error.

  1. Of all the dogs at the park, Spot had the shiniest coat.
  2. Between Kyle and his brother, Kyle played guitar best.
  3. Gertrude meticulously paged through the dozens of documents and scrutinized the one with the most coffee stains on it.
  4. When his choices were pay a fine or go to court for the traffic ticket, Michael felt like he was choosing between the lesser of two evils.

Reveal Answer

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