Turning Adjectives into Adverbs

As your child progresses in their grammar and writing skills, knowing how and when to use adverbs is an extremely useful skill. Adjectives and adverbs are important to any story to help keep the writing descriptive and vivid. In this lesson, we want to talk about what adjectives and adverbs are, and how to turn adjectives into adverbs. This way, children have multiple ways of keeping their creative stories interesting.

Adjectives vs adverbs: what’s the difference?

Adjectives and adverbs are both used as descriptive words. They both have an important job in writing, which is to provide the reader with more detailed information about something. Although they have the same purpose in writing, they function slightly differently. Adjectives can only modify (or describe) nouns and pronouns. These include people, places, and things. Adverbs, on the other hand, modify pretty much everything else, such as verbs, adjectives, clauses, or other adverbs. Most adverbs end in -ly.

How can I turn adjectives into adverbs?

There is one simple way to turn adjectives into adverbs: the -ly rule. This is a pretty simple rule to follow and only has some exceptions when it comes to spelling. Here are some examples of turning adjectives into adverbs by adding an -ly ending:

• Sad → sadly

• Cheerful → cheerfully

• Clear → clearly

• Brave → bravely

Next, let’s take a look at some of the exceptions to the -ly rule. If the adjective ends in -ic, you’ll need to add -ally instead of just -ly. Here are some examples:

• Sarcastic → sarcastically

• Tragic → tragically

• Specific → specifically

Finally, when adjectives end with the letter y, you’ll need to replace the y with the -ily ending, instead of just the -ly ending. Here are some examples:

• Happy → happily

• Scary → scarily

• Tricky → trickily

Activity & resource

English is a very complex language, and there will be exceptions to all of the above rules. However, learning the exceptions will come with time and practice. Nevertheless, these rules are a great place to get your child started with changing adjectives to adverbs. We have prepared an adjectives and adverbs activity for your child to start practicing their new skill. Good luck!