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Chapter 14Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs In This Chapter 䊳Choosing between adjectives and adverbs 䊳Managing tricky pairs: good/well and bad/badly 䊳Selecting a, an, or the

In this part

Listen to a little kid and you hear language at its most

basic: Tommy want apple Mommy go store? No nap!

These “sentences” — nouns and verbs and little else — communicate effectively, but everyone who’s passed the sandbox stage needs a bit more Enter descriptions and comparisons Also enter complications, because quite a few common errors are associated with these elements

In this part you can practice your navigation skills, steer-ing around such pitfalls as the choice between adjectives,

adverbs, and articles (Sweet or sweetly? Good or well? A

or an? Chapter 14 explains all.) This part also tackles the

placement of descriptions (Chapter 15) and the proper way to form comparisons (Chapters 16 and 17) Mastering all these topics lifts you out of the sandbox and places you permanently on the highest grammatical levels

Chapter 14

Writing Good or Well:

Adjectives and Adverbs

In This Chapter

䊳Choosing between adjectives and adverbs

䊳Managing tricky pairs: good/well and bad/badly

䊳Selecting a, an, or the

Do you write good or well — and what’s the difference? Does your snack break feature

a apple or an apple or even the apple? If you’re stewing over these questions, you have

problems specifically, the problems in this chapter Here you can practice choosing between two types of descriptions, adjectives and adverbs This chapter also helps you

figure out whether a, an, or the is appropriate in any given situation.

Distinguishing Between Adjectives and Adverbs

In your writing or speaking, of course, you don’t need to stick labels on adjectives and adverbs But you do need to send the right word to the right place in order to get the job done, the job being to communicate your meaning to the reader or listener (You also need to punctuate strings of adjectives and adverbs correctly For help with that topic, check out

Chapter 5.) A few wonderful words (fast, short, last, and likely, for example) function as both adjectives and adverbs, but for the most part, adjectives and adverbs are not interchangeable.

Adjectives describe nouns — words that name a person, thing, place, or idea They also

describe pronouns, which are words that stand in for nouns (other, someone, they, and

simi-lar words) Adjectives usually precede the word they describe, but not always In the follow-ing sentence, the adjectives are italicized:

The rubber duck with his lovely orange bill sailed over the murky bath water (Rubber describes duck; lovely and orange describe bill; murky and bath describe water.)

An adverb, on the other hand, describes a verb, usually telling how, where, when, or why an action took place Adverbs also indicate the intensity of another descriptive word or add information about another description In the following sentence, the adverbs are italicized:

The alligator snapped furiously as the duck violently flapped his wings (Furiously describes snapped; violently describes flapped.)

Most adverbs end in -ly, but some adverbs vary, and adjectives can end with any letter in the alphabet, except maybe Q or Z If you’re not sure which form is an adjective and which

is an adverb, check the dictionary Most definitions include both forms with handy labels telling you what’s what

Here I hit you with a description dilemma: which word is correct? The parentheses contain both an adjective and an adverb Circle your selection

Q.The water level dropped (slow/slowly), but the (intense/intensely) alligator-duck quarrel went on and on

A.slowly, intense How did the water drop? The word you want from the first parentheses

must describe an action, so the adverb slowly wins the prize Next up is a description of a

quarrel, a thing, so the adjective intense does the job.

1 The alligator, a (loyal/loyally) member of the Union of Fictional Creatures, (sure/surely)

resented the duck’s presence near the drainpipe

2 “How dare you invade my (personal/personally) plumbing?” inquired the alligator (angry/

angrily)

3 “You don’t have to be (nasty/nastily)!” replied the duck.

4 The two creatures (swift/swiftly) circled each other, both looking for a (clear/clearly)

advantage

5 “You are (extreme/extremely) territorial about these pipes,” added the duck.

6 The alligator retreated (fearful/fearfully) as the duck quacked (sharp/sharply).

7 Just then a (poor/poorly) dressed figure appeared in the doorway.

8 The creature whipped out a bullhorn and a sword that was (near/nearly) five feet in length.

9 When he screamed into the bullhorn, the sound bounced (easy, easily) off the tiled walls.

10 “Listen!” he ordered (forceful/forcefully) “The alligator should retreat to the sewer and

the duck to the shelf.”

11 Having given this order, the (Abominable/Abominably) Snowman seemed (happy/happily).

12 The fight in the bathtub had made him (real/really) angry.

13 “You (sure/surely) can’t deny that we imaginary creatures must stick together,” explained

the Snowman

14 Recognizing the (accurate/accurately) statement, the duck apologized to the alligator.

15 The alligator retreated to the sewer, where he found a (lovely/lovingly) lizard with an urge

to party

16 “Come (quick/quickly),” the alligator shouted to the duck.

17 The duck left the tub (happy/happily) because he thought he had found a new friend.

18 The alligator also celebrated because he had discovered an enemy (dumb/dumbly)

enough to enter the sewer, the alligator’s turf

19 “You go (first/firstly),” murmured the gator, as the duck entered a (particular/

particularly) narrow tunnel

20 The duck waddled (wary/warily), beginning to suspect danger.

21 “You look (worried/worriedly),” said the alligator.

22 The duck was (silent/silently), too frightened to quack.

23 Fortunately, the Snowman had also decided to explore the (winding/windingly) tunnel.

24 The Snowman sounded (angry/angrily) as he scolded the gator.

25 “I’ve had it!” he screamed “I’m sealing these (filthy/filthily) pipes for once and for all!”

How’s It Going? Choosing Between Good/Well and Bad/Badly

For some reason, the “judgment” adjective and adverb pairs (good and well, bad and badly) cause a lot of trouble Here’s a quick guide on how to use them Good and bad are adjectives,

so they have to describe nouns (people, places, things, or ideas) Well and badly are adverbs used to describe action They also attach to other descriptions In the expression a well

writ-ten essay, for example, well is attached to the word writwrit-ten, which describes essay.

Well can be an adjective in one particular circumstance: health When someone asks how

you are, the answer (I hope) is I am well or I feel well You can also — and I hope you do — feel good, especially when you’re talking about your mental state, though this usage is a bit more informal Apart from health questions, however, well is a permanent member of the adverb team In fact, if you can insert the word healthy in a particular spot, well works in

the same spot also

Check out these judgment words in action:

I gave a good report to the boss this morning (The adjective good describes the noun report.)

In my opinion, the report was particularly well written (The adverb well attaches

to the verb written.)

Truffle, a bad dog, snarfed up an entire bag of kibble this morning (The adjective

bad describes the noun dog.)

Truffle slept badly after his kibble-fest (The adverb badly describes the verb slept.)

When a description follows a verb, danger lurks You have to decide whether the descrip-tion gives informadescrip-tion about the verb or about the person/thing who is doing the acdescrip-tion or being If the description attaches to the verb, go for an adverb If it attaches to the person/

thing (the subject, in grammatical terms), opt for the adjective

Put on your judge’s robes and circle the right word in each set of parentheses

Q.Truffle’s trainer works (good/well) with all types of dogs, especially those that don’t out-weigh him

A.well How does the trainer work? The word you need must be an adverb because you’re

giving information about an action (work), not a noun

26 Truffle barks when he’s run (good/well) during his daily race with the letter carrier, Adam

Arbel

27 The letter carrier likes Truffle and feels (bad/badly) about beating him.

28 Truffle, on the other hand, tends to bite the poor guy whenever the race doesn’t turn out

(good/well)

29 Truffle’s owner named him after a type of chocolate candy she likes very (good/well).

30 The slightly deaf letter carrier thinks high-calorie snacks are (bad/badly).

31 He eats organic sprouts and wheat germ for lunch, though his meal tastes (bad/badly).

32 Truffle once caught a corner of Arbel’s lunch bag and chewed off a (good/well) bit.

33 Resisting the urge to barf, Truffle ate (bad/badly), according to his doggie standards.

34 Truffle, who didn’t feel (good/well), barked quite a bit that day.

35 Tired of the din, his owner confiscated the kibble and screamed, “(Bad/Badly) dog!”

Mastering the Art of Articles

Three little words — a, an, and the — pop up in just about every English sentence

Some-times (like my relatives) they show up where they shouldn’t (I probably just blew my Thanksgiving invitation.) Technically, these three words are adjectives, but they belong to the subcategory of articles As always, forget about the terminology Just use them properly! Here’s how to tell the difference:

⻬ The refers to something specific When you say that you want the book, you’re implying one particular text, even if you haven’t named it The attaches nicely to

both singular and plural words

⻬ A and an are more general in meaning, and they work only with singular nouns If you want a book, you’re willing to read anything, or at least to browse the bookshelves a bit.

A precedes words beginning with consonants, and an comes before words beginning

with vowels In other words, you want a book but an encyclopedia.

If you want a general term but you’re talking about a plural, try some or any instead of

a or an, because these last two articles can’t deal with plurals.

Write an article covering the Miss Grammar Pageant — oops, wrong type of article

Write the correct article in each blank in the sentences that follow

Q.When Lulu asked to see _ wedding pictures, she didn’t expect Annie to put on _ twelve-hour slide show

A.the, a In the first half of the sentence, Lulu is asking for something specific Also, wedding

pictures is a plural expression, so a and an are out of the question In the second half of

the sentence, something more general is appropriate Because twelve begins with the consonant t, a is the article of choice.

36 Although Lulu was mostly bored out of her mind, she did like _ picture of Annie’s

Uncle Fred that caught him snoring in the back of the church

37 _ nearby guest, one of several attempting to plug up their ears, can be seen poking

Uncle Fred’s ribs

38 At Annie’s wedding, Uncle Fred wore _ antique bow tie that he bought in _

department store next door to his apartment building

39 _ clerk who sold _ tie to Uncle Fred secretly inserted _ microphone and

_ miniature radio transmitter

40 Uncle Fred’s snores were broadcast by _ obscure radio station that specializes in

embarrassing moments

41 Annie, who didn’t want to invite Uncle Fred but was forced to do so by her mother,

placed _ buzzer under his seat

42 Annie’s plan was to zap him whenever he snored too loudly; unfortunately, Fred chose

_ different seat

43 Lulu’s sneeze set off the buzzer, whereupon she jumped a foot into _ air.

44 One of _ two flower girls, distracted by Lulu’s movement, dropped _ basket of

roses that she was supposed to scatter in _ center aisle

45 Reverend Foster shortened _ ceremony in _ effort to avoid even more trouble.

Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Descriptors

Show off the knowledge you gained from the sections in this chapter by finding the mis-takes in this excerpt from a dress catalogue (see Figure 14-1) Twenty descriptive words are underlined, but only some of them are wrong Look for adjectives trying to do an adverb’s job (and vice versa) or the wrong sort of articles When you find an error, correct it If the description is okay, leave it alone

Dollars’ Clothing: Fashions That Work

A–D Surprising comfortably suits for work and leisure Easily-to-clean polyester in real varied colors goes from the office grind to the extreme bright club scene without a pause!

A Fast track jacket Stun your co-workers with a astonishingly elegance of deeply eggplant Gently curves follow an real natural outline to accentuate your figure The silkily lining, in delightful loud shades of orange, gives a strong message: I am woman! Hear me roar!

B Softly, woven pants coordinate with a jacket described above — and with everything in your wardrobe In eggplant, orange, or eggplant-orange plaid

Figure 14-1:

Sample dress-catalogue exercise