Adjectives and adverbs can have similar lexical meanings. For example: light - easy; fast - quickly; yesterday - yesterday .

However, adjectives and adverbs are independent parts of speech that perform different functions in a sentence and have different morphological characteristics. Their analysis will allow us to avoid difficulties in defining the concepts “adjective” and “adverb”, as well as to identify the distinctive features of each of these parts of speech.

Adjectives in Russian, this is a large group of words that denote the attribute of an object by quality, shape, belonging to someone or other properties:

sweet tea;

round table;

father's order.

In a sentence, adjectives are connected with the words they define by a coordinating connection and in the nominative singular case they answer the questions: Which? which? which? which?

The adjective has the syntactic role of an agreed definition.

Adverb is an independent indeclinable part of speech that denotes a sign of an action, a circumstance of an action or a sign of a characteristic:

go light;

sit high;

to offend inadvertently;

very bright.

In a sentence, adverbs play the role of circumstances and are connected with the words to which they refer, not grammatically, but by meaning, that is, by a connection of adjacency.

The commonality between adjectives and adverbs is that they contain a certain attribute of something, however, it is precisely by the nature of this attribute that these parts of speech are separated.

Adjectives have three categories of meaning:

• quality (green, sweet, soft) ;
• relative (wooden, hedgehog, material) ;
• possessive (mother, fox, Matrenin) .

Qualitative adjectives may have a greater or lesser intensity of the attribute, so they are classified according to degrees of comparison:

• positive degree (smart, kind, strong) ;
• comparative (smarter, kinder, stronger) ;
• superlative (the smartest, the most intelligent; kindest, kindest; strongest, strongest) .

Qualitative adjectives can be used in full or short form:

cold - cold;

white - white

Since adjectives are an inflected part of speech, they have inconsistent gender characteristics ( iron character, iron door ); are declined according to cases and can be used in singular and plural.

Unlike adjectives, adverbs are classified according to their meaning as attributive and adverbial. These main categories are divided into

• quality (How? - high, cold) ;
• course of action (how? - quickly, together) ;
• measures and degrees (to what extent? how much? – very, little, twice);
• places (where? where? - left, right) ;
• time (When? how long? - in the morning, always) ;
• causes (Why? - going blind) ;
• goals (For what? for what purpose? - out of spite) .

A common morphological feature of adverbs is their immutability. However, qualitative adverbs -o, -e can have degrees of comparison, like the adjectives from which they are formed.

Dul cold wind. With every minute he became more and more colder. (compare the article of a qualitative adjective)

There was Cold. Still on the balcony colder. (qualitative adverb, comparative v.)

Conclusions website

1. An adverb differs from an adjective in morphological characteristics. An adjective is a modifiable part of speech, an adverb does not change.
2. By meaning, an adverb is a part of speech that denotes a characteristic of an action, state or other characteristic, while an adjective denotes a characteristic of an object.
3. The adjective plays the syntactic role of an agreed definition, and the adverb acts as a circumstance.
4. The categories of adjectives and adverbs are characterized by different features, since an adverb is directly related to the action, and an adjective is directly related to the object or subject of the action.

Each of us has been familiar with such a part of speech as an adverb since school. We actively use them in everyday speech, without thinking at all about any rules or basic theory.

However, it is necessary to understand the concept itself: what is an adverb in the Russian language? According to the rules of literature, this term is defined as, denoting a sign of a completed action, the state of an object or the quality of an object, and plays the role of a circumstance or inconsistent definition in sentences. Answers the question: “how”?

Adverbs bring more meaning, precision and expressiveness to our speech. To correctly construct a sentence containing this part of speech, it is necessary to take into account its stylistic significance and semantic role.

Writing particles not with adverbs ending in -o (-e). Consistent use

Let's consider the spelling of the particle not- with adverbs ending in -о (-е). The role of the particle not in the Russian language is manifested in negation and word formation.

1. A particle not with adverbs ending in -o (-e) is written together if a new word with the opposite meaning is formed. Instead, you can substitute a synonym that is not missing. List of adverbs: not bad (the original word is bad); illiterate (the original word is literate); not far (the original word is far). Exceptions are the words: not soon (soon), not in vain (in vain), not by chance (by chance), not on purpose (on purpose).
2. The particle does not attach to indefinite and negative adverbs. Examples: no need (why), nowhere (where).
3. In case the word cannot be used without a particle: absurd, accidental, careless, unexpected, clumsy, sloppy.
4. If the sentence contains opposition and conjunction but: speak quietly, but expressively.

Separate use

Let's look at another spelling of adverbs in -o (-e):

1. Separate writing occurs if the sentence contains opposition and conjunction a: I thought about it not well, but badly; fly low, not high; visited not often, but rarely; It didn't sound loud, but quietly.
2. If the adverb is associated with the words: far from, not at all, not at all, not at all, etc. Examples: not at all stupid, not at all reliable, not at all late.

Role in a phrase

Collocations with adverbs are found in almost all lexico-grammatical types. Depending on the part of speech that plays the main role, there are: verb, noun and adverbial phrases.

1. In verb phrases, the main role is given to the verb. There are also cases in which the secondary word is the adverb itself. Example: deal with three people, decide fairly.
2. In noun phrases, the main role can be given to several parts of speech. Phrases with adverbs, as secondary members, can include nouns and adjectives. An example of combining a construction with a noun: walking, swimming in Korean. An example of combining a construction with an adjective: unbearably hot, surprisingly sensitive.
3. What occupies the main (and secondary) position in adverbial phrases is no longer in doubt. An example of a construction with two adverbs: very stupid, still not bad. An example of a phrase with one noun: near the park, shortly before the day off, alone with his father.

Adverb and adjective - what's the difference?

An important question when studying adverbs is the question of their similarities and differences with the adjective.

So, how do you distinguish an adverb from an adjective?

Firstly, due to the lack of dependent and definable words. In a verb conjunction, an adverb, as a rule, plays the role of an adverb. An adjective has several dependent words that agree with it. In addition, adjectives are easily omitted, since the prepositions next to them do not belong to them, but to nouns.

Secondly, one adverb with a similar meaning can take the place of another: then - then, in vain - in vain, first - first, etc. Replacement can only be done with another adjective, or other nominal parts of speech: to an empty house - to a free house.

So, we figured out how to distinguish an adverb from an adjective in Russian. The same provisions also apply when it is necessary to distinguish it from a noun, pronoun and numeral. Conjunctions are distinguished by their connecting function between homogeneous members, as well as parts of a complex or whole sentence.

Degrees of comparison

If qualitative adjectives participated in the creation of adverbs, then

Superlative degree and its education

Adverbs have a compound form. As a rule, it combines the comparative degree and two pronouns - everyone and everything.

Qualitative adverbs

The two most important categories of adverbs are called qualitative and adverbial. The first can determine the quality of the action performed (the so-called adverb of action), or a characteristic that is expressed by adjectives.

Let's look at the list of adverbs included in the qualitative category and examples of their use:

• Sing talentedly, grin contemptuously, defend brilliantly, deliberately quietly, spring-like warm, caringly, cautiously, etc.
• Qualitative adverbs often play the role of an epithet, which figuratively reflects the actions of verbs: “The night stood solemnly and regally” (from the story of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev).
• Qualitative adverbs have the power to form subjective assessments, meaning the intensification, diminutiveness, endearment or weakening of the attribute. This form, as a rule, is characteristic of colloquial speech, for example: recently, far, far away, hard, rather bad, etc.

Place of quantitative adverbs inside qualitative ones

Quantitative adverbs, as a subgroup within qualitative ones, mean:

1. The degree or measure of action and sign: to do little, to rush a little, much older.
2. Intensity of action: tie tightly.
3. Accuracy: exactly at midnight, almost a centimeter.

This adverb answers the questions:

• How much?
• How many?
• To what extent?

List of adverbs and examples of their use: three times older, slightly lower, too late, etc. In addition to verbs, nouns can also be defined: almost a teenager, twice awarded, etc.

Adverbs of adverbs

With the help of adverbial adverbs, you can express the circumstance of time, space, reason and purpose. They give explanations to verbs, adjectives and nouns: during the day, in the morning, from ancient times, everywhere, on the right, from ancient times, on purpose, from afar.

Qualitative and adverbial adverbs form another category - qualitative-adverbial, located somewhere in the middle. In this case the following questions are used:

• How?
• How?

These also include adverbs that correlate with numerals and denote comparison and likening. A list of adverbs that fall under the qualitative-adverbial category: crookedly, swimming, out loud, together, five of us, alone, honestly, in your opinion, in my opinion, in a comradely way.

Predicative adverbs or state category

Predicative adverbs are a large group of parts of speech that have a state meaning and act as a predicate. As a rule, such predicates “live” inside impersonal sentences.

The condition applies both to living beings (honestly, sadly, sadly) and to the surrounding world (stuffy, narrow, spacious, rainy). The adverbs it is possible, it is a pity, it is impossible, once (and a number of others) are proper predicative adverbs.

Correct use of adverbs will help make your speech literate and beautiful.

Comparing adverbs of different categories helps to understand the rules of their use both in written and oral speech. Their incorrect use can lead to quite funny situations. In the speech of the older generation, you can find outdated words, as well as words characteristic of certain rural settlements: otudova (instead of there), ikhniy (instead of them), nonche (instead of today), vnutri (instead of inside) and many others.

Many problems can arise when using interrogative and relative adverbs "where". Instead of where, another interrogative and relative adverb is often used - “where”. So, the phrases “Where did she go?” “Where did you go?”, “Where did you go?” change to “Where did you go?”, “Where did you go?” and “Where did you go?”

The situation is the same with the adverb “terribly”: its use does not add any additional expressiveness to our speech, as it might seem at first glance, but, on the contrary, spoils it. This is especially noticeable when using the adverb “creepy” with words that mean something positive: terribly beautiful, terribly beautiful, terribly pleasant, etc. Such phrases have a tinge of slang and mannerisms. Writers usually resort to this technique to add a negative or ironic character to their work and characters.

The adverb “strongly” will not give you anything useful if it is constantly replaced by other important words. For example: “hit hard” (instead of “hit hard”), “had a hard lunch” (instead of “had a big lunch”), “you are well versed in this topic” (instead of “you are well versed in this topic”), etc.

If you want to use these adverbs in speech, then you should take into account their features. Thus, the adverb “strongly” has its place only in descriptions of a person’s thoughts and feelings: you’re thinking hard, you’re really bored, you’re in deep doubt, etc.

It is also worth mentioning tautological phrases in which an adverb appears next to a first-person personal pronoun: “I personally consider this inappropriate”; “I personally don’t care”; “We personally are going to go on vacation”; “I personally think that you are lying now,” etc.

It is known that such an adverb in the Russian language as “tacitly”, formed from the adjective “taciturn”, can replace the gerund silently. A person whose speech contains such substitution will most likely seem illiterate, and his phrases will seem meaningless.

Examples: “She silently walked up to the table and took a book”; “The hunter silently watched the prey”; “The police carried out the search silently,” etc.

Thus, it becomes clear that such disparaging use of adverbs can only spoil our speech. The Russian language is difficult but beautiful, so arm yourself with the knowledge you've acquired and speak and write with confidence!

How does an adverb differ from a short adjective? and got the best answer

Answer from Olga Savenkova[guru]
Very briefly, a short adjective answers the question: “what?” and denotes a feature of an object (For example, beautiful, smart, sweet; “what?” beautiful, smart, sweet; “what?” beautiful; “what?” beautiful, smart, nice)
And an adverb answers the question “how?” and most often denotes a sign of action (For example, singing (how?) well), but can also refer to an adjective ((how?) dazzling white), gerund (raising (how?) up ), sometimes to a noun (step (where? which?) back)
To distinguish a short adjective from an adverb, you need to look at the word to which the adverb refers. adj. or adverb, and ask a question from it to the doubtful one. The adverb will not answer the questions “what? adverb, it cannot be converted into a full adjective).

Answer from Yergey Antonov[active]
the adverb does not change...

Answer from [Tonechka][guru]
the adverb does not answer the questions what is what
adverb answers the question how, denotes a sign of action

Answer from 2 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: how does an adverb differ from a short adjective?

What is an adverb as a part of speech? What questions does the adverb answer? How does an adverb differ from other parts of speech? Examples of adverbs.

“The Russian language is great and powerful” - we all know about this from the school board. Perhaps this is precisely why learning this great language is sometimes so difficult for us. What are all his parts of speech worth? This material will be devoted to one of them.

What is an adverb in Russian, what questions does the adverb answer?

An adverb is an independent part of speech in the Russian language. In addition to the fact that this part of speech is considered independent, it is also unchangeable. Often, adverbs in a sentence are attached to a verb or gerund, less often - to a noun, adjective or other adverb.

In Russian, adverbs can answer many questions, such as:

• Where? Where?
• How? How?
• When? How long?
• How much?
• Why?
• For what? For what?

Depending on what questions the adverbs answer, they are divided into adverbial and attributive.

Adverbial adverbs include:

• Adverbs of time - When? How long? From what time? (for a long time, constantly, for a long time).
• Adverbs of place - Where? Where? Where? (far, everywhere).
• Adverbs of reason - Why? For what reason? (that's why I'm going blind).
• Adverbs of purpose - Why? For what? (intentionally, mockery).

Determinative adverbs include:

• Adverbs of measure and degree - To what extent? How much? How many? (excessively, plenty, very).
• Adverbs of manner and manner of action - How is the action performed? How? (spring-like, quiet).
• Qualitative adverbs - What are the properties or features of the action? (jog lightly, cry quietly).

How is an adverb emphasized in a sentence?

• It is necessary to emphasize an adverb in a sentence based on its meaning. The fact is that sometimes an adverb can act as a definition, sometimes as a circumstance, and sometimes as a subject or predicate.
• If an adverb in a sentence serves as an adverbial circumstance, then it must be emphasized with a dot and a dash - “After reading the letter, Anna Ivanovna began to sob EXTREMELY.”
• If an adverb in a sentence is an inconsistent definition, then it should be underlined with a wavy line - “breakfast in ENGLISH” or “hard-boiled egg”.
• If an adverb in a sentence acts as a predicate, it is underlined by two lines - “He is MARRIED.”
• If an adverb in a sentence serves as a noun, it must be emphasized with one straight line - “Our TODAY worries everyone.”

How to identify an adverb: grammatical and morphological features of an adverb

1. An adverb has no gender.
2. The adverb has no number.
3. The adverb has no case.
4. The adverb is not inflected.
5. The adverb is not conjugated.
6. Adverbs have no endings.
7. Qualitative adverbs ending in -e or -o and formed from qualitative adjectives have degrees of comparison.
8. Often adverbs depend on verbs, adjectives or other adverbs and form phrases with them.
9. Adverbs are signs of action, attributes or other objects.
10. In a sentence, an adverb most often acts as an adverb.

Does an adverb indicate a characteristic of an action or object?

Adverbs most often denote a sign of an action or a sign of another sign, and only occasionally - a sign of an object. Examples:

• A sign of action is jumping high, sleeping poorly.
• A sign of another sign is absolutely absurd, so stupid.
• The sign of the subject is life apart, supplies for future use.

What is the difference between an adverb and an adjective?

• An adverb is an unchangeable part of speech, but an adjective is a changeable part of speech.
• An adverb is a sign of an action, state or other attribute, and an adjective is only a sign of an object.
• Often in a sentence, an adverb acts as a circumstance, and an adjective acts only as a modifier.
• An adverb is directly related to the action, and an adjective is directly related to the subject.
• Adverbs do not have gender, number, or case, but adjectives do.
• An adjective in a sentence can easily be omitted, but an adverb cannot.

How do adverbs differ from other parts of speech?

• Adverbs differ from conjunctions in that adverbs are often tied to other parts of speech (verbs, other adverbs, participles, nouns or numerals), and conjunctions are only a link between homogeneous members of a sentence, parts of a sentence, or several sentences.
• The difference between adverbs and prepositions is that the former do not introduce a case form of the name.
• Adverbs differ from particles in that they do not obey prepositional nouns by preceding them.
• An adverb does not have dependent or modifiable words (unlike nouns, adjectives, numerals and pronouns).
• An adverb can often be changed to another adverb that is similar in meaning.

What is an adverb: examples

In this subsection we will look at examples of adverbs that display degrees of comparison of this part of speech:

• Simple comparative degree - obtained by adding the suffix -ee, -ey, -e, -she: fat - fatter, fatter; soft - softer; little - less.
• Compound comparative degree - obtained by strengthening adverbs with words more or less: funny - less funny; hard - more hard.
• Compound superlative - is formed by supplementing the original form of the adverb with the words most, least, or simple comparative degree - the words of all, everything: scary - most (least) scary; coolest - coolest (everything).

Adverb as part of speech: Video

An adjective is easily recognized in a sentence by the way 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 the shirt.

“He bought a beautiful shirt.” In this example, the adjective beautiful appears, which modifies the noun shirt, making it clear what kind of shirt the person bought.

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

For example:

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

“The little boy is playing with a new toy.” The adjectives small (small) and new (new) tell us which boy and which particular toy we are talking about.

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

• Which?
• Which?
• Which one?

Adverb

If adjectives influence nouns, changing their properties, then an adverb affects verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. You can easily find an adverb in a sentence using the suffix -ly, because most adverbs in English are formed by adding it to the adjective. It is important to remember that an adverb answers the question “how?” or “how much?” Let's look at 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.” (It was an extremely important meeting.) The adverb extremely modifies the adjective important. We ask the question “how important”: “How important was it? Extremely important.” (How important was it? Extremely important.) Now it is clear that the meeting was extremely important.

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

So, remember the main rule - an 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 follows one of the following verbs, the adjective will appear after its noun.

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

Let's look at examples:

“The sky is blue.” (The sky is blue.) The adjective blue refers to the noun sky, but comes after the verb is, which is a form of the verb be.

“Diana looks happy.” (Diana looks happy.) The adjective happy also comes after the noun Diana.

“The music sounds loud.” (The music sounds loud.) The adjective loud comes after the noun music in the sentence.

“The juice smells great.” (The juice smells great.) Again, first we see the noun juice, and then 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. Adjective bad or adverb badly?

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

“The horse smells badly.” Here the adverb badly means that the horse has a poor sense of smell, a poor ability to smell in general.

“The cat smells bad.” Thanks to the adjective bad, the sentence is no longer about smell, but about the fact that the cat is dirty, smells bad and needs a bath.

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

2. Adjective good or adverb well?

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

“I do well.” Use the adverb well to say that you are doing well and 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 sense of smell, but that the cat itself smells good, like after a bath.

Note: In colloquial English, with verbs of feelings and states, the adverb well can be used 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 passed the exam well.)

3. Adjective sure or adverb surely?

Sure is an adjective and surely is an adverb. Compare:

“She is sure about the decision.” (She is confident in her decision.) The adjective sure tells us that she is confident in herself, characterizing her condition.

“The soldiers were marching surely.” (The soldiers marched confidently.) The adverb certainly shows exactly how the soldiers marched.