Word formation adverbs from adjectives

Many adverbs are formed from adjectives and end in -ly. Here are some rules/tips to help you form adverbs from adjectives and spell them correctly.

Forming adverbs from adjectives is a common way to describe how something is being done. Adjectives describe qualities of nouns and pronouns, while adverbs describe how an action is performed or how an adjective or another adverb applies.

There are several ways to form adverbs from adjectives:

• By adding “-ly” to the end of the adjective: (e.g. slow -> slowly)
• By using the same word as the adjective: (e.g. fast -> fast)
• By adding “-ly” to adjectives ending in “-y”: (e.g. happy -> happily)
• By changing “-ic” to “-ically”: (e.g. fantastic -> fantastically)
• By adding “-ly” to adjectives ending in “-le”: (e.g. simple -> simply)

Adverbs are used to modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, and they often describe the manner, time, place, or frequency of an action or event.

Formation of adverbs in English: rules, exceptions, tables

Adverbs in English are characterized by verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. They answer the question «How?» in the overwhelming majority of cases. How to form an adverb from different parts of speech and are there any unusual ways of their formation? 

Adverbs are formed from adjectives using a suffix, also by converting and adding roots and several words.

He makes out documents as soon as possible. — He prepares the paperwork as soon as possible.
she sang beautifully… — She sang beautifully.
My wife is extremely nice. “My wife is extremely sweet.

Adverb groups

By the way of education, there are 4 types of adverbs. It is enough to know a few frequent adjectives and simple adverbs to start using the same-root adverbs.

The main types of education of adverbs of the English language will suggest the best use option.

Type of adverb	Simple	Difficult	Derivative	Composite
Method of education	Without adding the -ly suffix by conversion.	By adding two roots.	By adding the suffix –ly to the adjective.	By composing from words (adverb + adverb or preposition)
Examples	well where when here how (now) soon after (after) easy late much (a lot) little (a little) why (why) fast low	everywhere inside moreover sometimes (sometimes) always already (already) somewhat (to some extent)	honestly pleasantly Friendly easily suddenly suddenly rarely carefully casually cheerfully happily happily slowly clumsily	at first as well as in vain so far since that at once by all means at least (at least)

Note:

1) Derived adverbs formed from adjectives with an «l» at the end have a doubled «l».
Usual — usually, occasional — occasionally.

2) Adverbs formed from adjectives in –y change “y” to “i”, and after it add the suffix –ly.
Happy — happily, easy — easily.

3) Adverbs formed from adjectives in –ic end in –ically.
Heroic — heroically, realistic — realistically.

4) Adjectives in –le, forming an adverb, change the letter «e» to «y»: probable (possible) — probably (possible).

5) Exceptions. The adverbs late, fast, hard, early are formed from adjectives by conversion and remain unchanged. The adverb well does not have a single root with the adjective good. Bad is an adjective.

The adverb badly means «very, bad, extremely» and is often used incorrectly even by native speakers, especially in oral speech — hence the confusion.

Also in oral speech (Spoken English), native speakers use a simplified version of adverbs that coincide in form with adjectives:

cheap (cheap), quick (fast), slow (slow), loud (loud) and others.

Characterization of adjectives, verbs and other adverbs using adverbs

Using one sentence as an example, it is easy to understand how adverbs can characterize different parts of speech.

We understood the rules surprisingly well in spite of them to be very difficult. — We understood the rules surprisingly well, despite the fact that they were very difficult.

The part of speech to which the adverb belongs	Usage example
Verb	understood well — understood well
Adjective	very difficult — very (how, how much?) complex
Adverb	surprisingly well — surprisingly (how well?)

Special cases

These are cases involving coincidences, exceptions, and unusual ways of forming adverbs.

Adjectives match adverbs in form.	low friendly daily early early fast straight silly lonely lonely fatherly fatherly) far	How do native speakers act? Substitution of the word «way» turns the adjective into an adverb. He behaved in a silly way. — He was acting stupid (stupid) .My uncle supports me in a fatherly way. — My uncle supports me in a fatherly way.
Adverbs that are formed from nouns by adding the suffix -ly.	part — partly light — lightly	Determining the part of speech can easily be helped by its role in the sentence. This is due to the location: an adjective is always associated with a noun.
Adverbs that are formed from participles.	decided — decidedly	task: not to confuse the participle with the past tense verb.
A small number of adverbs are formed by the addition of the –ward (s) suffix.	towards backwards	This suffix has a limited number of words. Therefore, it is enough to know this small amount and use them.
Adverbs that match question words in form.	why where how when when	Used in a sentence in the function of interrogative words. — When are you coming home?

Results

So, for word formation of adverbs in English, there are 4 main ways of obtaining them from other parts of speech, as well as several exceptions for a certain number of adverbs.

It happened historically in the language.
To understand the basics and learn the word formation of adverbs, you must first of all know the frequently used adjectives.

Source: https://www.study.ru/courses/pre-intermediate/obrazovanie-narechiy

An adjective is easy to recognize in a sentence by how it affects the noun, changing its properties. For example:

«He bought a shirt.» The word shirt is a noun, but it is not clear what kind of shirt it is. All we know is that someone bought a shirt.

«He bought a beautiful shirt.» In this example, the adjective beautiful appears, which changes the noun shirt, which makes it clear which shirt the person bought.

It is not difficult to recognize an adjective in a sentence — it, as a rule, answers the questions “Which one?”, “Which one?”, “Which one?”.

For example:

“The kind woman gave us a tasty cake.” What woman? Kind (kind). What kind of cake? Tasty

«The small boy is playing with a new toy.» The adjectives small (small) and new (new) tell us which boy and what kind of toy we are talking about.

So, the main thing to remember is the questions that the adjective answers in English:

• What is it?
• Which the?
• Which one?

Adverb

If adjectives affect nouns, changing their properties, then the adverb affects verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. You can easily find an adverb in a sentence with the -ly suffix, because most adverbs in English are formed just by adding it to an adjective. It is important to remember that the adverb answers the question «how?» or «how much?» Let’s look at some examples:

«The pair danced gracefully.» (The couple danced gracefully.) The adverb gracefully influences the verb to dance, making it clear exactly how the couple danced.

«That man is very strong.» (That man is very strong.) In this sentence, the adverb very affects the adjective strong and shows how and how strong the man is. Let’s check by asking the question “how much?”: “How strong is he? He is very strong. » (How strong is he? He is very strong.)

«It was an extremely important meeting.» (This was an extremely important meeting.) The adverb extremely changes the adjective important. We ask the question “how much”: “How important was it? Extremely important. » (How important was it? Extremely important.) It is now clear that the meeting was extremely important.

«She smiled amazingly.» (She smiled an amazing smile.) Here the adverb amazingly affects the verb smile, and tells us how the girl smiled.

So, remember the main rule — the adverb most often answers the question «how?» At the same time, it can also answer the questions «when?», «Where?» and why?».

Additional rules

In English, adjectives usually precede the nouns they refer to. However, if the sentence contains one of the following verbs, the adjective will appear after its noun.

• to be
• to feel
• great taste
• to smell
• to sound
• to look
• to appear
• to seem

Consider the following examples:

«The sky is blue.» (The sky is blue.) The adjective blue refers to the noun sky, but follows the verb is in the sentence, which is the form of the verb be.

«Diana looks happy.» (Diana looks happy.) The adjective happy also follows the noun Diana.

«The music sounds loud.» (Music sounds loud.) The adjective loud follows the noun music in the sentence.

«The juice smells great.» (The juice smells great.) Again, we see the noun juice first, followed by the dependent adjective great.

Avoiding common mistakes

There are adjectives and adverbs in English that are difficult to distinguish by spelling. It is even more difficult to understand the difference in their use. Let’s clarify these situations.

1. Is the adjective bad or the adverb badly?

When you want to talk about your feelings or feelings, you should use the adjective bad. So when you feel bad or unwell, you say “I feel bad”. However, if you say “I feel badly,” it means that you feel dull, as if your hands are numb. Compare these examples:

«The horse smells badly.» Here the adverb badly means that the horse has a bad scent, a poor ability to smell in principle.

«The cat smells bad.» Thanks to the adjective bad, the sentence is no longer about scent, but about the fact that the cat is dirty, smells bad and needs bathing.

Note: In English there is also an expression “I feel badly”. It is used when you need to apologize, express regret. Imagine visiting a friend and accidentally breaking his favorite vase. Then you say, “I feel really badly about the vase”. 

2. Is the adjective good or the adverb well?

It is easy to remember a simple rule that works in the grammar of the English language — the adjective good should be used with the following verbs denoting feelings and states: feel, look, smell, be. While the adverb well combines with live, do. Compare:

«I do well.» Use the adverb well to say that you are doing well and that you are doing well.

«My grandmother looks good.» The adjective good says that the grandmother looks good, not that the grandmother has good eyesight.

«My cat smells pretty good now.» Again, the adjective good does not mean that the cat has a good scent, but that the cat itself smells good, like after bathing.

Note: In English colloquial speech with verbs of feelings and states, it is allowed to use the adverb well in expressions such as “I feel well”. This is due to the fact that many people confuse the adjective good and the adverb well in conversation. However, when talking about action verbs, you should only use the adverb well. For example:

«He plays football well.» (He plays football well.)

«The whole class did well on the exam.» (The whole class did well on the exam.)

3. Adjective sure or adverb surely?

Source: https://skyeng.ru/articles/10-sposobov-otlichit-prilagatelnoe-ot-narechiya-v-anglijskom