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Adverb and Adjective Choices in
Conversation |
From VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar.
Imagine two American students are talking outside of
their school. Let’s listen to the imaginary
conversation:
A: Today is going slow.
B: Yeah. I guess we should study for our grammar test.
A: That sounds like a terrible idea.
B: Yeah, but if we don't study, we won't do good on the
test.
A: Fine. Let's go study our notes quick. Then we can
play video games.
These bad students may hate grammar, but they just
taught you some common grammatical structures in
conversational American English.
In today's report, we will study how conversational
grammar differs from written and formal grammatical
structures.
We will show you how some Americans use adjectives and
adverbs in casual conversation.
Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives are words that give information about nouns.
They generally appear before nouns, although they also
appear after linking verbs.
Here are two examples:
You are a good student.
Learning English is fun.
In the two example sentences, the words "good" and "fun"
are adjectives. They are telling you something about a
noun.
Adverbs are often used to modify adjectives or verbs.
They give information about reason, manner, time, and so
on.
For example, the adverb loudly appears in this sentence:
We sang loudly.
The adverb loudly modifies the past tense verb, sang. It
tells about the way in which the subject, we, sang.
Adverbs often have an –ly ending, but there are many
that do not. You can read more about adverbs in past
Everyday Grammar stories.
Conversation:
Let's think back to the conversation we heard at the
beginning of the story:
A: Today is going slow.
B: Yeah. I guess we should study for our grammar test.
A: That sounds like a terrible idea.
B: Yeah, but if we don't study, we won't do good on the
test.
A: Fine. Let's go study our notes quick. Then we can
play videogames.
Notice that the words are used differently from what
might be taught in an English class.
In casual conversation, Americans often use adjective
forms in place of adverbs. They may use adjective forms
to modify verbs.
For example, the students use good – a word that is
normally an adjective - as an adverb. One student says
"we won't do good on the test."
In writing and in formal conversation, Americans
generally do not use the word "good" this way. Instead,
they use the word well. In formal writing or speaking,
you would be more likely to see or hear the sentence "we
won't do well on the test."
Americans also may use an adverb but choose not to say
an –ly ending.
For example, the student says "today is going slow,"
instead of "today is going slowly." You would be more
likely to read "slowly" in academic writing, write Susan
Conrad and Douglas Biber, two English grammar experts.
Not necessarily slang, not
necessarily impolite
These grammatical structures are not necessarily slang.
They are not necessarily impolite, either. You might
hear some of these structures in a restaurant, at a job
fair, or even at work.
For example, a boss might tell an employee "We need to
do this quick," about a project that must be completed
quickly.
This is the same pattern that the students used in their
conversation.
Conrad and Biber say that in formal speech and writing,
adjective forms are almost never used to modify verbs.
In addition, adverbs with –ly endings are more common in
writing – particularly in academic and news writing.*
What can you do?
The good news is this: we are not asking you to memorize
any of the patterns we have talked about today.
What we hope to do is show you that the grammatical
patterns in conversation do not always match the
patterns used in formal writing or speech. There is more
flexibility in casual speech.
Understanding this idea will help you understand
Americans when they speak, and it will help you sound
more natural when you speak to Americans.
You might also be pleased to know that Americans will
not judge you severely if you use an adjective in place
of an adverb. In fact, they probably would do the same!
I'm Jill Robbins.
And I'm John Russell.
John Russell wrote this story for Learning English. Caty
Weaver was the editor.
*Please see Conrad and Biber "Real Grammar: A
Corpus-Based Approach to English" pgs. 73-75 |
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