Adjectives and adverbs are powerful. Used appropriately, they can add precision and force to your writing, as the following excerpt demonstrates.

Seated cross-legged on a brocade pillow, wrapped in burgundy robes, was a short, rotund man with a shiny pate. He looked very old and very tired. Chhongba bowed reverently, spoke briefly to him in the Sherpa tongue, and indicated for us to come forward.

Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air

Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns and indicate which one, what kind, or how many. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, or entire sentences and indicate how, when, where, how often, or to what extent. (See also 1d and 1e.)

The two most common errors involving adjectives and adverbs occur when writers use (1) an adjective instead of an adverb (or vice versa) and (2) the wrong form of an adjective or adverb in a comparison. Use the following guidelines to identify and correct these and other common errors in your writing.

Although in conversation you may often use adjectives in place of adverbs, you should be careful in your writing to use adverbs to modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

Linking verbs, often forms of be and other verbs such as feel, look, make, and seem, express a state of being. A linking verb takes a subject complement—a word group that completes or renames the subject of the sentence. Verbs such as feel and look can also be action verbs. When they function as action verbs in a sentence, they may be modified by an adverb.

If you are not sure whether a word should be an adjective or adverb, determine how it is used in the sentence. If the word modifies a noun, it should be an adjective.

The adjective good modifies the noun student.

The adverb well modifies the verb perform.

The adverb badly modifies the verb did.

When you are describing someone’s health, well can also function as an adjective.

The adverb really modifies the adjective fresh.

A sentence with two negative words or phrases contains a double negative, which conveys a positive meaning. Do not use two negatives in a sentence unless you want to express a positive meaning (for example, not uncommon means “common”).

POSITIVE MEANING INTENDED

Athletic sportswear is not uncommon as casual attire.

Adjectives and adverbs can be used to compare two or more persons, objects, actions, or ideas. The comparative form of an adjective or adverb compares two items. The superlative form compares three or more items. Use the list below to check the comparative and superlative forms of most regular adjectives and adverbs in your sentences.

Irregular adjectives and adverbs form their comparative and superlative forms in unpredictable ways, as the following list illustrates.

Do not use comparative or superlative forms with absolute concepts, such as unique and perfect. Something cannot be more or less unique, for example; it is either unique or not unique.

An incomplete comparison can leave your reader confused about what is being compared.