Grammar tip: Adjective or Adverb?

What can you remember about the difference between adjectives and adverbs? Here’s a quick reminder:

An adjective describes a noun or pronoun: “That boy is so loud!”

An adverb describes a verb or anything apart from a noun and pronoun: “That boy speaks so loudly!”

Adverbs are used to answer how questions e.g. “How does he talk? – He talks loudly.”

(Linking verbs are verbs like ‘be’, ‘become’ and ‘seem’ which are not actions but instead link the subject to an adjective, noun or phrase that gives us more information about the subject)

be              He is tall.

seem         You seem sad.

become     He became thin.

These verbs can be used as linking verbs, but sometimes they’re normal verbs. Here are some examples of them being used as linking verbs:

act             He acted happy, but actually he was really sad.

appear       She appeared cold, so we took her inside.

feel            I feel terrible today!

get             It’s getting warm. The spring is coming!

go              The food went bad, because I forgot to put it in the fridge.

grow         She grew tired.

look           You look beautiful today!

prove        He thought he was right, but he was proved wrong.

remain      He remained calm. It was only a spider.

smell         The meal smelled delicious.

sound        The band sounded excellent.

stay           He stayed curious all his life.

taste           The milk tasted horrible.

turn          The weather turned bad just as we were leaving.

Note:

Linking verbs are not the same as stative verbs. Some linking verbs are stative, but some are not.

I’m getting old (a linking verb but not a stative verb).

The soup tastes good (a linking verb and a stative verb).

I know Julie (stative verb but not a linking verb).

“Flowers smell sweet or flowers smell sweetly”, which is correct?

Smell sweet is correct because it describes the smell of flowers.

“Fresh bread smells great” (adjective) – I am describinng my opinion on fresh bread

“I smell terribly because I have a cold” (adverb) – I am not able to use my nose to smell things because of my cold.