American Diploma · ACT · English: Usage

Adjectives vs Adverbs

Find the word being described, then choose: adjectives for nouns and after linking verbs, adverbs for verbs, adjectives, adverbs and participles — plus good/well, real/really and the tricky -ly words.

American Diploma › ACT English and Reading — Complete Course

"She sings beautiful." "The bridge was real old." "I feel badly." All three sound normal in everyday speech, and all three are errors the ACT likes to test. This lesson teaches one simple question that solves almost every adjective–adverb item — what word is being described? — and then the special cases the test uses to catch careful students: linking verbs, good/well, real/really, adverbs before participles, -ly words that are really adjectives, and adverbs that do not end in -ly at all.

What this question type tests

Adjective–adverb questions are usage questions in Conventions of Standard English, the reporting category that makes up 38–43% of the 40 scored ACT English questions (together with punctuation and sentence structure). They look like every other ACT English item: a word or phrase is underlined in the essay and you choose among four versions, usually with NO CHANGE first. There is often no question stem at all.

You can recognise the type with a vertical scan of the choices: they show the same word in different forms — careful / carefully, quick / quickly, good / well, real / really, surprising / surprisingly. As soon as you see that pattern, stop reading for meaning and ask the grammar question below.

Step 1: Find the word being described

Every describing word is attached to another word. Find that word first; its part of speech decides the answer.

The underlined word describes…	Use	✓ Example
a noun (person, place, thing, idea)	adjective	a careful engineer · a quick reply
a pronoun after a linking verb	adjective	She seems calm. It became dark.
a verb (an action)	adverb	She drove carefully. He replied quickly.
an adjective	adverb	an extremely quick reply · surprisingly cheap
another adverb	adverb	She spoke remarkably clearly.
a participle used as an adjective (built, designed, known)	adverb	a newly built school · a carefully designed plan
the whole sentence	adverb	Fortunately, nobody was hurt.

Most adverbs are adjective + -ly (slow → slowly, careful → carefully, easy → easily, gentle → gently, basic → basically). But the ending alone is not proof, as you will see in Step 5.

✗ Wrong	✓ Right	Why
The guide spoke very clear.	The guide spoke very clearly.	describes the verb spoke
The test was incredible difficult.	The test was incredibly difficult.	describes the adjective difficult
The new model runs quiet and efficient.	The new model runs quietly and efficiently.	both describe the verb runs
Luckily for us, the shop was open late.	(correct as written)	Luckily describes the whole sentence
They made a quickly decision.	They made a quick decision.	describes the noun decision
The plan was explained in a surprising simple way.	…in a surprisingly simple way.	surprisingly describes the adjective simple

السؤال الذهبي

قبل ما تختار، اسأل: الكلمة دي بتوصف إيه؟ لو بتوصف اسم (noun) يبقى adjective زي careful. لو بتوصف فعل أو صفة أو ظرف تاني يبقى adverb وغالبًا آخره ly زي carefully. مثال: incredibly fast — كلمة incredibly بتوصف fast (صفة)، علشان كده adverb.

Step 2: Linking verbs take adjectives

This is the rule the ACT tests most often. A linking verb does not show an action; it connects the subject to a word that describes the subject. So the word after it is an adjective, not an adverb.

Common linking verbs: be (is, are, was, were, been), seem, appear, become, remain, stay, prove, grow, turn, and the five sense verbs look, feel, sound, taste, smell.
The "is" test: replace the verb with *is/was*. If the sentence still makes sense, the verb is linking → use an adjective. "The soup tasted ___" → "The soup was salty" ✓ → salty.
✓ The room grew quiet. ✗ The room grew quietly. (The room became quiet.)
✓ Her plan sounds reasonable. ✗ Her plan sounds reasonably.
✓ The milk turned sour. ✓ The results proved accurate. ✓ The bread smells fresh.
✓ I feel bad about the mistake. ✗ I feel badly about the mistake. (*Bad* describes how *I* feel. "Feel badly" would describe how your fingers touch things.)

The same verb can be linking or action. Ask whether the verb shows something the subject *does* or simply describes the subject's *state*.

Linking (describes the subject) → adjective	Action (the subject does something) → adverb
The guard looked angry. (He was angry.)	The guard looked angrily at the crowd. (How did he look at them?)
The flowers smell sweet.	The dog smelled the bag eagerly.
The music sounded loud.	She sounded the alarm loudly.
The coffee tastes bitter.	He tasted the sauce carefully.
The sky grew dark.	The farmer grew vegetables successfully.
The fabric feels soft.	The doctor felt the patient's arm gently.

Tip: if the verb is followed by an object or by a preposition such as *at* (looked at, smelled the bag), it is usually an action verb → adverb.

Step 3: good / well, bad / badly, real / really

Word	Part of speech	✓ Right	✗ Wrong
good	adjective only	a good job · The plan looks good.	She did good on the test.
well	adverb (how something is done)	She did well on the test. He sings well.	He sings good.
well	adjective meaning healthy	After a week in bed, I finally feel well.	—
bad	adjective	The news is bad. I feel bad.	The team played bad.
badly	adverb	The team played badly.	I feel badly about it (meaning sorry).
real	adjective (= genuine)	a real diamond · a real problem	The trip was real long.
really	adverb (= very, truly)	The trip was really long.	It was real good.
sure / surely	adjective / adverb	I am sure. It will surely rain.	It sure is hot. (casual)

Notice that *I feel good* and *I feel well* can both be correct: *good* describes your mood, *well* means you are not ill. The ACT will make the meaning clear from the passage. What it will never accept is did good, played good or real good.

Step 4: Adverbs before participles and adjectives

A participle (built, designed, known, written, painted) can act like an adjective before a noun. The word that describes the participle must be an adverb. This is a favourite hard item because the adjective version "sounds" like a list of two adjectives.

✗ a beautiful decorated room → ✓ a beautifully decorated room (it was decorated beautifully)
✗ a new built museum → ✓ a newly built museum
✗ a careful written report → ✓ a carefully written report
✗ a wide read author → ✓ a widely read author
✓ a beautiful, old house — here both words describe the noun *house*, so two adjectives are correct.
Test: put *and* between the two words. "a beautiful and decorated room" means something different → you need the adverb. "a beautiful and old house" works → two adjectives are fine.

Step 5: -ly adjectives and adverbs without -ly

Some words end in -ly but are adjectives: they describe nouns and cannot simply describe a verb. You cannot add another -ly to most of them, so you rewrite with in a … way / manner.

-ly adjective	✓ Right	✗ Wrong
friendly	a friendly neighbour · She smiled in a friendly way.	She smiled friendly.
lovely	a lovely garden · The garden looks lovely.	She sang lovely.
lonely, lively, likely	a lonely road · a lively debate · a likely result	—
costly, elderly, timely	a costly mistake · an elderly man · a timely warning	He answered timely. → He answered in a timely manner.
silly, ugly, deadly, cowardly	a silly idea · a deadly storm	He behaved cowardly. → He behaved in a cowardly way.
daily, weekly, early (both!)	a daily walk / I walk daily · an early train / We left early	—

The opposite group: some adverbs have no -ly form, or the -ly form means something different. The test uses these to trap students who add -ly to everything.

Adverb = adjective	✓ Right	Careful: the -ly word means something else
fast	She runs fast.	fastly does not exist
hard	They worked hard.	hardly = almost not (They hardly worked = they did very little)
late	The bus arrived late.	lately = recently
high	The kite flew high.	highly = very much (highly respected)
near	Stay near.	nearly = almost
straight, early, long	Go straight home. We left early.	—

افعال الإحساس والكلمات اللي آخرها ly

بعد look وfeel وsound وtaste وsmell وseem وbecome بنستخدم صفة: The soup tastes good و I feel bad — مش badly. جرّب تحط is مكان الفعل: لو المعنى ماشي يبقى صفة. وخلي بالك: friendly وlovely وlonely صفات مع إن آخرها ly، فنقول in a friendly way. وhard ظرف من غير ly، أما hardly معناها "بالكاد".

Worked examples

Each example is a sentence from an ACT-style essay. The underlined portion is shown in bold.

Worked example 1 — adverb describing an adjective. "The new metro line has made the trip across the city remarkable short."