Adverbs describe verbs or adjectives or other adverbs. They usually, but not
always, end in “-ly.” An adverb will always make grammatical sense in the
sentence:
The wombat did it ___. (Example: The wombat did it lasciviously.)
Example 1:
I ran slow.
The word slow is an adjective. You can tell because it makes sense in the
phrase “the slow wombat.” However, in Example 1, it is being used to describe
the verb ran. This is impossible. Adjectives describe only nouns. Adverbs
describe verbs. Use slowly, the adverb, instead.
Correct: I ran slowly.
Example 2:
Poindexter juggles good.
Poindexter has problems. The word good is an adjective, but it’s being used
to describe the word juggles, which is a verb. Again, you have to use the adverb.
Correct: Poindexter juggles well. (Notice that well is an adverb even though it
does not end in “-ly.”)
Example 3:
Let’s do an SAT example.
I hate lumpy fish on soporific afternoons.The underlined portion above is best replaced with?
A) NO CHANGE
B) soporifically afternoons.
C) soporific after noons.
D) DELETE underlined portionThe answer is A. The sentence is grammatically correct, not to mention
worthy of analysis from a psychological perspective. If you immediately jumped