Both adjectives and adverbs describe other words.

• 
  Adjectives describe a noun or pronoun.
  
• 
  Adverbs describe a verb, adjective, or other adverb.
  

Tip: Many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective (poor →poorly; gentle → gently), but a number of common adverbs do not follow this pattern.

Further, some words can be either adjectives or adverbs, depending on how they are used in a sentence.

Adjective: It was a hard exam.

                               adj. noun

Adverb: I studied hard all week.

                   verb adv.

Adjective: Herman took the late plane back to Washington.

                                            adj. noun

Adverb: Many of the guests stayed late, so we turned off the lights and went to bed.

                                              verb adv.

Therefore, the only reliable way to tell the difference between adjectives and adverbs is to analyze their function in a sentence. The following chart shows you how to examine sentences to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs.

Modifier                                     Function                                    Example

Adjective                                   Describe nouns                         I went to an early class.

                                                                                                                        adj. noun

Adjective                                   Describe pronouns                   They were suffering with the flu for days.

                                                                                                   pronoun       adj.

Adverb                                      Describe verbs                         Mia awoke early in the morning.

                                                                                                          verb adv.

Adverb                                      Describe adverbs                     Mia awoke very early in the morning.

                                                                                                                    adv. adv.

Adverb                                      Describe adjectives                  The dawn was really beautiful.

                                                                                                                              adv. adj.