---
title: "Adjectives vs adverbs"
description: "Use adjectives and adverbs correctly, choosing between them depending on whether a noun or verb/adjective is being modified (e.g., 'She ran quickly' vs 'She is quick')"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/adjectives-vs-adverbs-mt_j351evNNnB
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/adjectives-vs-adverbs-mt_j351evNNnB.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# Adjectives vs adverbs

Use adjectives and adverbs correctly, choosing between them depending on whether a noun or verb/adjective is being modified (e.g., 'She ran quickly' vs 'She is quick')

Subject: English · Area: Grammar & Punctuation · Ages 7 to 8
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/adjectives-vs-adverbs-mt_j351evNNnB

## Ready when they can

- Choose the correct form: 'The dog is (slow/slowly)' vs 'The dog walks (slow/slowly)'
- Identify whether a word is modifying a noun (adjective) or a verb (adverb) in a given sentence
- Expand sentences by adding both an adjective and an adverb: 'The tall boy ran quickly'

## Lesson: Adjectives and adverbs: two different jobs

You already know how to describe a noun with an adjective, like 'the tall boy' or 'the shiny ball.' Adverbs have a different job: they describe a verb, telling you how an action happens, like 'ran quickly' or 'spoke softly.'

**Example.** Look at these two sentences. 'The quick fox' uses quick, an adjective, to describe the fox. 'The fox runs quickly' uses quickly, an adverb, to describe how it runs.

*(drawing: The quick fox runs quickly. Quick tells you about the fox, and quickly tells you about the running.)*

**Tip.** Here's a trick: many adverbs end in -ly. Slow becomes slowly, quiet becomes quietly, careful becomes carefully. If a word tells you how a verb happens, look for that -ly ending.

**Example.** 'She is a careful writer' uses careful to describe the writer, a noun. 'She writes carefully' uses carefully to describe writes, a verb. Same idea, two different words.

**Recap.** Adjectives describe nouns, adverbs describe verbs, and many adverbs end in -ly.

## Practice

24 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [Expanded noun phrases](https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/expanded-noun-phrases-mt_cU3LcEVkBQ)
- [Basic Nouns & Verbs](https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/basic-nouns-and-verbs-mt_yBJyCfhtem)

## Opens up

- [Prefixes and suffixes](https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/prefixes-and-suffixes-mt_HrgDjxcWvf)
- [Converting Words into Verbs](https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/converting-words-into-verbs-mt_p3tZiUaWAa)
- [Adjective Order in Sentences](https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/adjective-order-in-sentences-mt_VVx0hPPSKi)
- [Comparatives & Superlatives](https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/comparatives-and-superlatives-mt_X1L9DoUwjF)