‘Quicker’ or ‘More Quickly’!? Grammar Guru Helps!

Have you ever wondered if you’re supposed to say “I got there quicker than I thought I would?” da

This Grammar Guru is getting back to her roots with this month’s lesson. I’m going to help dissect a pesky rule that many do not follow. Mistakes in this category are often due to unfamiliarity rather than stupidity, and I’ve struggled to understand the importance of this, too. It’s something we were taught once, then never again. Once you learn it, you’ll hear it everywhere. To start, we will break down the two important category or class of wordsAdverbs and adjectives have similar functions, so they are easy to confuse. Both of these types of words modify other words and help with describing or identifying.

Adjectives only modify nouns and pronouns. Remember, a noun is a person, place, or thing. Adjectives include words about color, size, shape, and state.

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They often answer the questions: how, where, when, why, and to what extent. Adverbs often end in -ly, but not always.

It’s easy to confuse adverbs and adjectives because they have similar functions. This article will explain what adverbs and adjectives are and how to know if you’re using the correct one.

A Fascinating Detour: The Adjective Order

If you’re a native English speaker, you may have noticed that “the big red house” sounds more natural than “the red big house.” The video below explains the order in which adjectives occur in English:

–ly means in a certain way

Predicate Adjectives
Although many adjectives fall before the nouns they modify, as in the examples above, those used in sentences or clauses with linking verbs fall after the nouns they modify. Linking verbs describe a state of being rather than an action. So, they’re talking about the state of the noun. The most common linking verb is to be, but some others include sense verbs like feel, appear, seem, look, smell, sound, and taste.

Claire is tired.
That pizza looks delicious.s
The sunset seemed fake.
Do you think this milk tastes spoiled?
With linking verbs, adjectives like tired, delicious, fake, and sp0iled all fall after the nouns they modify (Claire, pizza, sunset, milk).

What’s an Adjective?

What’s an Adverb

Beware Linking Verbs + Predictive AdjectivesHowever, there is one type of verb that doesn’t mix well with adverbs. Linking verbs, such as feel, smell, sound, seem, and appear, typically precede adjectives, not adverbs. A very common example of the type of mixup that happens with linking verbs is the following:

INCORRECT: I feel badly about canceling last minute.
CORRECT: I feel bad about canceling last minutes.

Because feel is a verb, it seems to call for an adverb rather than an adjective. But feel isn’t just any verb; it’s a linking verb, which means that it links the subject of a sentence to the modifier that follows it. Since a subject is, by definition, a noun (or a pronoun), it is modified by an adjective. An adverb would describe how you perform the action of feeling—an adjective describes what you feel. “Paz feels badly” means that Paz is bad at feeling things. If Paz is trying to read Braille through thick leather gloves, then it might make sense for you to say “Paz feels badly.” But if you’re trying to say that Paz is experiencing negative emotions, “Paz feels bad” is the phrase you want.

For example, saying “I run fast” when you mean “I ran quickly.”

Using too many adverbs.
Adverbs are like spices: a little can enhance your writing, but too much can ruin it. In general, try to limit yourself to one or two adverbs per sentence.

Using adverbs in place of adjectives.
Adjectives describe whereas adverbs modify. So instead of saying “He’s a really slow driver,” try “He drives slowly.”

Good v. Well
One of the most commonly confused adjective/adverb pairs is good versus well. There isn’t really a good way to remember this besides memorization. Good is an adjective. Well is an adverb. Let’s look at a couple of sentence where people often confuse these two:

She plays basketball good.
I’m doing good.
In the first sentence, good is supposed to be modifying plays, a verb; therefore the use of good—an adjective—is incorrect. Plays should be modified by an adverb. The correct sentence would read “She plays basketball well.”

In the second sentence, good is supposed to be modifying doing, a verb. Once again, this means that well—an adverb—should be used instead: “I’m doing well.”