The terms noun substantive and noun adjective were formerly used in English but are now obsolete. The words that are today typically called nouns were then called substantive nouns ( nōmen substantīvum). In the grammatical tradition of Latin and Greek, because adjectives were inflected for gender, number, and case like nouns (a process called declension), they were considered a type of noun. ExerciseĬhoose the adjective or adverb in each sentence (between brackets).ġ I drink my coffee _ (black/blackly).Ģ That student did her assignment _ (bad/badly).ģ He did a _ (fantastic/fantastically) job.Ĥ I’m afraid you didn’t spell my name on the card _ (proper/properly).ĥ I woke up too _ (late/lately) to give you a call before I left the house.Ħ This fish has been baked too _ (short/shortly).ħ He’s been reading _ (intensive/intensively) for the past two hours.Ĩ You must look on this subject _ (positive/positively).ĩ The busses in the background of the recording are _ (clear/clearly) audible.ġ0 Her qualifications for the job were _ (good/well) proven.ġ1 I like it that the cushions on the sofa are so _ (soft/softly).ġ2 I think that women’s hair can never be too _ (long/longly).ĭid you like this quiz? You can do free quizzes on the website or order extra quizzes here.See also: Part of speech § History, and Noun § HistoryĪdjective comes from Latin nōmen adjectīvum, a calque of Ancient Greek: ἐπίθετον ὄνομα (surname), romanized: epítheton ónoma, lit.'additional noun' (whence also English epithet). There are a few tricky questions in there. Note: adverbs are often written with –ly at the end. “beautifully” is an adverb, because it describes “writes.” Do Adverbs End in LY? (“Well” is the adverb of the adjective “good.” They’re often confused.) “well” is an adverb, describing “dances.” “fantastically” is an adverb, describing “green.” It says something about “green,” which is an adjective. If you want to say something about an adjective or a verb (an action word), you use an adverb. So to recap, if you want to say something about a noun, you need an adjective. Insane is the adjective in both sentences.

Often, the adjective will come before the noun, but it can also be after a form of the verb “to be.” So an adjective is the word that describes this thing, person or concept. Examples of nouns are: tree, pianist, teapot, man, woman, telephone, luck, happiness, etc. Nouns are words that denote things, people, concepts etc.

What is adjective and adverb