Adjectives and adverbs Order of Adjectives

Opinion

adjectives

Fact Adjectives

noun

size

age

shape

colour

origin

material

Used for/be about

It’s a

lovely

small

old

square

brown

Chinese

wooden

writing

table

subject + verb

Place

manner

time

She goes

to the gym

on foot

every day.

subject + verb

Manner

place

time

He was working

Quietly

in the shed

all day.

Adverbs with two forms and differences in meaning

deep = a long way down

deeply = greatly

direct = by the shortest route

directly = immediately

easy = gently and slowly

easily = without difficulty

free = without cost

freely = willingly

full = exactly; very

fully = completely

hard = intently; with effort

hardly = scarcely

high = at/to a high level

highly = after all others

lastly = finally

late = not early

lately = recently

near = close

nearly = almost

pretty = fairy

prettily = in a pretty way

short = suddenly

shortly = soon

sure = certainly

surely = without a doubt

wide = off-target

widely = to a large extent

wrong = incorrectly

wrongly = unjustly (wrongly goes before verbs/past part. – wrong/wrongly go after verbs)

• as ... (positive degree)... as not so/as ... (positive degree)... as such a(n)/so ...as

• twice/three times etc/half as ... (positive degree)... as

• the same as

• look, sound, smell, taste + like

• less ... (positive degree)... than the least ... (positive degree)... of/in

• the + comparative ..., the + comparative

• comparative + and + comparative

• prefer + -ing form/noun + to + -ing form/noun (general preference)

• would prefer + to-inf + rather than + inf without to (specific preference)

• would rather/sooner + inf without to + than + inf without to

clause + whereas/while + clause (comparison by contrast)

He is as handsome as everyone says he is! She isn’t as tall as her sister. Mrs Jones is not so friendly as she looks.

She puts four times as much sugar in her tea as me. If he was half as lucky as you, he’d be extremely rich.

He has the same views as his father.

That dress looks like an old sack.

This chocolate has less fat than that one but the Swiss chocolate has the least fat of all.

The easier the exam, the higher your marks will be. The more people who use buses, the better it is for the environment.

It’s getting colder and colder every day.

I prefer eating healthily to eating junk food. Men usually prefer beer to milk.

I would prefer to go swimming rather than watch television all day.

I’d rather walk than drive.

This book says the battle was in 1066, whereas that book says it was in 1166.