Slow or Slowly? Understanding Adverbs of Manner

Hi. My name is Rebecca, and I have an English question for you. Okay? Is it correct to say

in English, "He drives careful" or "He drives carefully"? Which one is correct? "He drives

careful" or "He drives carefully"? Well, I hope you said the second one, but in case

you weren't sure, or if you'd like to know a little bit more about why that's the correct

answer, this lesson will help you. Okay? Because our lesson today is about adverbs. Okay? And

adverbs are words which give us more information in English about the verb of the sentence,

about another adverb, about an adjective, and sometimes also about a phrase or a clause.

Okay? So an adverb is a word that gives us more information about one of these, for example.

So let's look at what they are, what they sound like, and how to identify them and use

them correctly.

So there are different kinds of adverbs, many, many different kinds. I've just written five

of them here. Some of them tell you... Or many of them, actually, tell you how something

was done. So it could be, for example, "He drove slowly." Right? That tells you how he

drove. It could give you some information about where something happened, like "We teach

English here." Okay? Or, "How often somebody does something." "She always eats the same

food." Okay? Or, "When something happened." Like, "Today." Like, "We are filming this

lesson today." Right? Or, "How much." All right? "He completely... He was completely exhausted

after the exam." So that tells us how exhausted he was, completely.

So there are different kinds of adverbs, all right, in English that you will use. Now,

where do the adverbs go? Well, the adverbs can go in different places. For that, do check

a grammar textbook, and it'll explain to you where the adverbs go. But in different situations,

the adverbs go in different places. That much I can tell you. All right?

Another important point is about the spelling of adverbs. All right? So usually, we, in

fact, define an adverb as a word which often ends in -ly, and that's the most common form

of adverb that you'll see. So the adjective "clear" becomes the adverb "clearly", or "polite"

becomes "politely". "Silent", "silently". Right? These are all adverbs, not adjectives.

We'll talk in a few minutes about that. If the word already ends in -y, if the adjective

ends in -y, then we will change it to -ily. So "angry", "angrily", "easy", "easily",

"noisy", "noisily". All right? So "angry", "easy", and "noisy" would be the adjectives,

and "angrily", "easily", and "noisily" are the adverbs. They tell us how somebody is

doing something. All right?

Here are some more adverbs. If the word or the adjective ends in -ful, like "beautiful",

"helpful", and so on, then we add -ly like this, "beautifully", "carefully", "successfully".

All right? If the word ends in -le, like the word "simple", then to make it an adverb,

we add -ly. "Simply", we drop the -e, right? "Terrible" becomes "terribly". "Horrible"

becomes "horribly". All right? So these are some spelling changes that need to be made

when we're talking -- when we're using and writing with adverbs.

Some more examples of how we can use adverbs. "He drove carefully." "The bus stopped suddenly."

"She shut the door quietly." "And we ate dinner quickly." All of these were adverbs of manner.

All of these were adverbs of manner. They told us how somebody did something. So, "He

drove", how, "carefully". "The bus stopped", how, "suddenly". "She shut the door", how,

"quietly". "We ate dinner", how, "quickly". All right? So whenever you're answering that

kind of question, you're using an adverb. Okay?

Something to keep in mind, there's always some exceptions just to confuse you and just

to make life a little bit more interesting for me, and I hope for you, is that sometimes

there are a few words in English which are the same when they are adjectives and adverbs.

For example, the word "fast". We can say, "He's a fast driver." Or we can say, "He drives

fast." In that case, we don't say, "He drives fastly." Because there's no word, "fastly".

Okay? There's only "fast". So, "He drives fast." Or, "He is a fast driver." So there,

the adjective and the adverb is actually the same. Also, same goes here. "He's an early

riser." An early riser means someone who wakes up or rises early in the morning. Or, "He

rises early." "He wakes up early." So again, the word is an adjective and an adverb, and

we don't need to change it anymore. "She has a hard job." Alright? Or, "She works hard."

Again, the word "hard" is an adjective and also an adverb. We don't need to change it.

In fact, if you change that word, "hard", to "hardly", it has the opposite meaning.

Did you know that? "Hardly", if we say, "She hardly works." It means, it does not mean

that she works very hard. It means, "She almost doesn't work." Okay? If I say, for example,

"I have hardly any money." That means, "I have almost no money." So, "hardly" means

almost nothing. And it's obviously the opposite of what you'd want to say if someone does

work hard. Okay? So, you say, "She works hard." Not, "She hardly works." Or, "She works hardly."

Because that would have the opposite meaning. Okay?

Another exception is the word "good". Alright? So, "good" doesn't have another form like

"goodly". Alright? It has "good" and "well". The adjective "good", "She speaks good English."

"Good" is being used as an adjective to describe the noun, "English". But in another sentence,

another kind of construction, we could say, "She speaks English well." Right? Now, the

word "well" is describing how she speaks. Not the noun, but the verb. "She speaks English

well." Or, "She speaks good English." Not, "She speaks English good." Which is heard

around the world sometimes. Okay? So, if you'd like to do a quiz on adverbs, please visit

our website, www.engvid.com. There, you'll find over 300 videos and more every day on

various aspects of English, and I'm sure they'll help you to improve your English. All the

best. Bye for now.