A Remedial English Grammar
CHAPTERS
ARTICLES
AGREEMENT OF VERB AND SUBJECT
CONCORD OF NOUNS, PRONOUNS AND
POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES
CONFUSION OF ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS
DIFFICULTIES WITH COMPARATIVE AND
SUPERLATIVES
CONFUSION OF PARTICIPLES: ACTIVE &
PASSIVE
PREPOSITIONS
NEGATIVE VERBS
TENSES 1, 2 & 3
THE INFINITIVE
Confusion of adjectives and adverbs
A. Adjectival Complements
1. The verbs to be, to seem, to become and verbs which
suggest ‘become’ are followed by an adjective. (Other
verbs include appear, feel, look, grow, turn)
E.g. Oranges are scarce this year.
He became very angry.
The milk turned sour.
The sky grew dark.
The structure is S + v + adj
Confusion of adjectives and adverbs
Some of the earlier mentioned verbs can be used in a
different sense when they need an adverb.
E.g. He turned quickly (means move around)
Those rose trees have grown rapidly
(means increase in size)
Here the structure is S + v + adv
Confusion of adjectives and adverbs
2.
An adjective is used after verbs indicating
fundamental physical senses such as feel, sound,
taste, smell.
E.g. The fruit tastes bitter
The surface of this table feels rough
Here the structure is S + v (sense) + adj
Confusion of adjectives and adverbs
B. Words ending in –ly
Adverbs of manner can be formed from adjectives by
adding –ly to the suffix
E.g. foolishly, quickly, slowly
But if the adjective itself carry an –ly suffix then it
cannot be converted as stated above. They are of two
categories.
Confusion of adjectives and adverbs
1. Those which are used both as adjectives and
adverbs without any change. E.g. daily, early,
hourly, only, weekly, yearly.
2. Those which can be used as adjectives only. E.g.
brotherly, friendly, homely, likely, lovely, manly,
seemly, womanly.
The adverbial equivalent of kindly (adjective) is in a
kindly manner.
Confusion of adjectives and adverbs
C. Use of hard/hardly, late/lately, most/mostly
Hard means strenuously
E.g. You should work hard for attaining success.
Hardly means scarcely at all
E.g. I could hardly recognize my old friend.
Confusion of adjectives and adverbs
Late means
(a) After the time expected
(b) Towards the end of the specified period of time
She has arrived late to the class
She did not marry until late in life
Lately means recently
Have you read any good novels lately
(It makes use of only perfect tense unlike ‘recently’ which
can be used with perfect or past)
Confusion of adjectives and adverbs
Most means to the greatest extent or degree
E.g. The food I like the most is milk porridge.
Mostly means for the most part
E.g. The audience consisted mostly of children.