In this part . . .
Listen to a little kid and you hear language at its most
basic: Tommy want apple. Mommy go store? No nap!
These “sentences” — nouns and verbs and little else —
communicate effectively, but everyone who’s passed the
sandbox stage needs a bit more. Enter descriptions and
comparisons. Also enter complications, because quite a
few common errors are associated with these elements.
In this part you can practice your navigation skills, steer-
ing around such pitfalls as the choice between adjectives,
adverbs, and articles. (Sweet or sweetly? Good or well? A
or an? Chapter 14 explains all.) This part also tackles the
placement of descriptions (Chapter 15) and the proper
way to form comparisons (Chapters 16 and 17). Mastering
all these topics lifts you out of the sandbox and places you
permanently on the highest grammatical levels.
25_599321 pt4.qxp 4/3/06 8:51 PM Page 178
Chapter 14
Writing Good or Well:
Adjectives and Adverbs
In This Chapter
䊳Choosing between adjectives and adverbs
䊳Managing tricky pairs: good/well and bad/badly
䊳Selecting a, an, or the
Do you write good or well — and what’s the difference? Does your snack break feature
a apple or an apple or even the apple? If you’re stewing over these questions, you have
problems . . . specifically, the problems in this chapter. Here you can practice choosing
between two types of descriptions, adjectives and adverbs. This chapter also helps you
figure out whether a, an, or the is appropriate in any given situation.
Distinguishing Between Adjectives and Adverbs
In your writing or speaking, of course, you don’t need to stick labels on adjectives and
adverbs. But you do need to send the right word to the right place in order to get the job
done, the job being to communicate your meaning to the reader or listener. (You also need to
punctuate strings of adjectives and adverbs correctly. For help with that topic, check out
Chapter 5.) A few wonderful words (fast, short, last, and likely, for example) function as both
adjectives and adverbs, but for the most part, adjectives and adverbs are not interchangeable.
Adjectives describe nouns — words that name a person, thing, place, or idea. They also
describe pronouns, which are words that stand in for nouns (other, someone, they, and simi-
lar words). Adjectives usually precede the word they describe, but not always. In the follow-
ing sentence, the adjectives are italicized:
The rubber duck with his lovely orange bill sailed over the murky bath water. (Rubber
describes duck; lovely and orange describe bill; murky and bath describe water.)
An adverb, on the other hand, describes a verb, usually telling how, where, when, or why an
action took place. Adverbs also indicate the intensity of another descriptive word or add
information about another description. In the following sentence, the adverbs are italicized:
The alligator snapped furiously as the duck violently flapped his wings. (Furiously
describes snapped; violently describes flapped.)
Most adverbs end in -ly, but some adverbs vary, and adjectives can end with any letter in
the alphabet, except maybe Q or Z. If you’re not sure which form is an adjective and which
is an adverb, check the dictionary. Most definitions include both forms with handy labels
telling you what’s what.
21_599321 ch14.qxp 4/3/06 11:30 PM Page 179
Here I hit you with a description dilemma: which word is correct? The parentheses contain
both an adjective and an adverb. Circle your selection.
Q. The water level dropped (slow/slowly), but the (intense/intensely) alligator-duck quarrel
went on and on.
A. slowly, intense. How did the water drop? The word you want from the first parentheses
must describe an action, so the adverb slowly wins the prize. Next up is a description of a
quarrel, a thing, so the adjective intense does the job.
1. The alligator, a (loyal/loyally) member of the Union of Fictional Creatures, (sure/surely)
resented the duck’s presence near the drainpipe.
2. “How dare you invade my (personal/personally) plumbing?” inquired the alligator (angry/
angrily).
3. “You don’t have to be (nasty/nastily)!” replied the duck.
4. The two creatures (swift/swiftly) circled each other, both looking for a (clear/clearly)
advantage.
5. “You are (extreme/extremely) territorial about these pipes,” added the duck.
6. The alligator retreated (fearful/fearfully) as the duck quacked (sharp/sharply).
7. Just then a (poor/poorly) dressed figure appeared in the doorway.
8. The creature whipped out a bullhorn and a sword that was (near/nearly) five feet in length.
9. When he screamed into the bullhorn, the sound bounced (easy, easily) off the tiled walls.
10. “Listen!” he ordered (forceful/forcefully). “The alligator should retreat to the sewer and
the duck to the shelf.”
11. Having given this order, the (Abominable/Abominably) Snowman seemed (happy/happily).
12. The fight in the bathtub had made him (real/really) angry.
13. “You (sure/surely) can’t deny that we imaginary creatures must stick together,” explained
the Snowman.
14. Recognizing the (accurate/accurately) statement, the duck apologized to the alligator.
15. The alligator retreated to the sewer, where he found a (lovely/lovingly) lizard with an urge
to party.
16. “Come (quick/quickly),” the alligator shouted to the duck.
17. The duck left the tub (happy/happily) because he thought he had found a new friend.
18. The alligator also celebrated because he had discovered an enemy (dumb/dumbly)
enough to enter the sewer, the alligator’s turf.
19. “You go (first/firstly),” murmured the gator, as the duck entered a (particular/
particularly) narrow tunnel.
20. The duck waddled (wary/warily), beginning to suspect danger.
180 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons
21_599321 ch14.qxp 4/3/06 11:30 PM Page 180
21. “You look (worried/worriedly),” said the alligator.
22. The duck was (silent/silently), too frightened to quack.
23. Fortunately, the Snowman had also decided to explore the (winding/windingly) tunnel.
24. The Snowman sounded (angry/angrily) as he scolded the gator.
25. “I’ve had it!” he screamed. “I’m sealing these (filthy/filthily) pipes for once and for all!”
How’s It Going? Choosing Between
Good/Well and Bad/Badly
For some reason, the “judgment” adjective and adverb pairs (good and well, bad and badly)
cause a lot of trouble. Here’s a quick guide on how to use them. Good and bad are adjectives,
so they have to describe nouns (people, places, things, or ideas). Well and badly are adverbs
used to describe action. They also attach to other descriptions. In the expression a well writ-
ten essay, for example, well is attached to the word written, which describes essay.
Well can be an adjective in one particular circumstance: health. When someone asks how
you are, the answer (I hope) is I am well or I feel well. You can also — and I hope you do —
feel good, especially when you’re talking about your mental state, though this usage is a bit
more informal.Apart from health questions, however, well is a permanent member of the
adverb team. In fact, if you can insert the word healthy in a particular spot, well works in
the same spot also.
Check out these judgment words in action:
I gave a good report to the boss this morning. (The adjective good describes the
noun report.)
In my opinion, the report was particularly well written. (The adverb well attaches
to the verb written.)
Truffle, a bad dog, snarfed up an entire bag of kibble this morning. (The adjective
bad describes the noun dog.)
Truffle slept badly after his kibble-fest. (The adverb badly describes the verb slept.)
When a description follows a verb, danger lurks. You have to decide whether the descrip-
tion gives information about the verb or about the person/thing who is doing the action or
being. If the description attaches to the verb, go for an adverb. If it attaches to the person/
thing (the subject, in grammatical terms), opt for the adjective.
Put on your judge’s robes and circle the right word in each set of parentheses.
Q. Truffle’s trainer works (good/well) with all types of dogs, especially those that don’t out-
weigh him.
A. well. How does the trainer work? The word you need must be an adverb because you’re
giving information about an action (work), not a noun.
26. Truffle barks when he’s run (good/well) during his daily race with the letter carrier, Adam
Arbel.
27. The letter carrier likes Truffle and feels (bad/badly) about beating him.
181
Chapter 14: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs
21_599321 ch14.qxp 4/3/06 11:30 PM Page 181
28. Truffle, on the other hand, tends to bite the poor guy whenever the race doesn’t turn out
(good/well).
29. Truffle’s owner named him after a type of chocolate candy she likes very (good/well).
30. The slightly deaf letter carrier thinks high-calorie snacks are (bad/badly).
31. He eats organic sprouts and wheat germ for lunch, though his meal tastes (bad/badly).
32. Truffle once caught a corner of Arbel’s lunch bag and chewed off a (good/well) bit.
33. Resisting the urge to barf, Truffle ate (bad/badly), according to his doggie standards.
34. Truffle, who didn’t feel (good/well), barked quite a bit that day.
35. Tired of the din, his owner confiscated the kibble and screamed, “(Bad/Badly) dog!”
Mastering the Art of Articles
Three little words — a, an, and the — pop up in just about every English sentence. Some-
times (like my relatives) they show up where they shouldn’t. (I probably just blew my
Thanksgiving invitation.) Technically, these three words are adjectives, but they belong to the
subcategory of articles. As always, forget about the terminology. Just use them properly!
Here’s how to tell the difference:
⻬The refers to something specific. When you say that you want the book, you’re
implying one particular text, even if you haven’t named it. The attaches nicely to
both singular and plural words.
⻬Aand an are more general in meaning, and they work only with singular nouns. If you
want a book, you’re willing to read anything, or at least to browse the bookshelves a bit.
A precedes words beginning with consonants, and an comes before words beginning
with vowels. In other words, you want a book but an encyclopedia.
If you want a general term but you’re talking about a plural, try some or any instead of
a or an, because these last two articles can’t deal with plurals.
Write an article covering the Miss Grammar Pageant — oops, wrong type of article.
Write the correct article in each blank in the sentences that follow.
Q. When Lulu asked to see _____ wedding pictures, she didn’t expect Annie to put on _____
twelve-hour slide show.
A. the, a. In the first half of the sentence, Lulu is asking for something specific. Also, wedding
pictures is a plural expression, so a and an are out of the question. In the second half of
the sentence, something more general is appropriate. Because twelve begins with the
consonant t, a is the article of choice.
36. Although Lulu was mostly bored out of her mind, she did like _____ picture of Annie’s
Uncle Fred that caught him snoring in the back of the church.
37. _____ nearby guest, one of several attempting to plug up their ears, can be seen poking
Uncle Fred’s ribs.
38. At Annie’s wedding, Uncle Fred wore _____ antique bow tie that he bought in _____
department store next door to his apartment building.
182 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons
21_599321 ch14.qxp 4/3/06 11:30 PM Page 182