Adjectives or adverbs?

As you probably know, we use adjectives to describe nouns (the table is old) and adverbs to describe verbs (she was driving slowly).

However, sometimes things are not quite so simple.

Which sentence do you prefer?

A. It looks differently.

B. It looks different.

You know that look is a verb, not a noun, so you might want to choose option A but actually option B is correct.

Adjectives are often used with the verb be.

The table is old.

But did you know that there are other verbs that act in the same way as be, such as seem, appear and look. These are called copular verbs and are used with adjectives not adverbs. Here are some examples:

• It looks different.

• She seems friendly enough.

• It appears to be over-priced.

• They smell delicious.

• It tastes weird.

So, if you can replace the verb with be, chances are that you need an adjective, not an adverb.

To find out more, you can do a search for copula verbs or come along to one of my lessons.

Want to learn more grammar? Check out these posts.