1) Adjectives (quick/careful etc.) tell us about a noun. We use adjectives before nouns:

• Sam is a careful driver.
  (not a carefully driver)
• We didn’t go out because of the heavy rain.

2) We use adjectives after some verbs, especially be, and also look/feel/sound, etc.

Examples:

• Please, be quiet
• My exam results were really bad
• You look very serious
• I feel happy

1) Quickly and seriously are adverbs. Many adverbs are adjective + ly:

• quick - quickly
• serious - seriously
• bad - badly
• careful - carefully
• heavy - heavily

*Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. Some adjectives end in -ly too, for example:

friendly, lively, elderly, lonely, lovely

2) Adverbs (quickly/carefully etc.) tell us about a verb. How somebody does something or how something happens.

• Sam drove carefully along the narrow road. (not drove careful)
• We didn’t go out because it was raining heavily. (not raining heavy)

3) You can also use adverbs before adjectives and other adverbs. 

• reasonably cheap (adverb + adjective)
• terribly sorry (adverb + adjective)
• incredibly quickly (adverb + adverb)

More examples in sentences: 

• It’s a reasonably cheap restaurant and the food is extremely good.
• I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t mean to push you.
• Maria learns languages incredibly quickly.
• The exam was surprisingly easy.

1. Complete each sentence with an adverb. The first letters of the adverb are given

1 We didn’t go out because it was raining heavily.
2 I had no problem finding a place to live. I found a flat quite ea___.
3 We had to wait a long time, but we didn’t complain. We waited pat____.
4 Nobody knew that Simon was coming to see us. He arrived unex___.
5 Mike keeps fit by playing tennis reg___.
6 I don’t speak French very well, but I can understand per___ if people speak
sl___ and cl___.

2. Put in the correct word.

Sam drove carefully along the narrow road. (careful / carefully)
2 I think you behaved very ___. (selfish / selfishly)
3 The weather changed ___. (sudden / suddenly)
4 There was a ___ change in the weather. (sudden / suddenly)
5 Liz fell and hurt herself really ___. (bad / badly)
6 I think I have flu. I feel ___. (awful / awfully)
7 Tanya is ___ upset about losing her job. (terrible / terribly)
8 I could sit in this chair all day. It’s very ___. (comfortable / comfortably)
9 I explained everything as ___ as I could. (clear / clearly)
10 Be careful on that ladder. It doesn’t look very ___. (safe / safely)
11 Have a good trip and I hope you have a ___ journey. (safe / safely)
12 I’m glad you had a good trip and got home ___. (safe / safely)

3. Complete each sentence using a word from the box. Sometimes you need the adjective and sometimes the adverb.

careful(ly) complete(ly) dangerous(ly) financial(ly) fluent(ly)
frequent(ly) nervous(ly) perfect(ly) permanent(ly) special(ly)

1 Sam doesn’t take risks when he’s driving. He’s always careful.
2 He’s late sometimes, but it doesn’t happen ___.
3 Maria’s English is very ___ although she makes quite a lot of mistakes.
4 I cooked this meal ___ for you, so I hope you like it.
5 Everything was very quiet. There was ___ silence.
6 I tried on the shoes and they fitted me ___.
7 I’d like to buy a car, but it’s ___ impossible for me at the moment.
8 I’m staying here only a few weeks. I won’t be living here ___.
9 Do you usually feel ___ before exams?
10 Dan likes to take risks. He lives ___

4. Choose two words (one from each color) to complete each sentence.

absolutely, badly, completely, happily, reasonably, seriously, slightly, unnecessarily, unusually

changed, cheap, damaged, enormous, ill, long, married, planned, quiet

1 I thought the restaurant would be expensive, but it was reasonably cheap.
2 Will’s mother is ___ ___ in hospital.
3 This house is so big! It’s ___ ___.
4 It wasn’t a serious accident. The car was only ___ ___.
5 Our children are normally very lively, but they’re ___ ___ today.
6 When I returned home after 20 years, everything had ___ ___.
7 The movie was ___ ___. It could have been much shorter.
8 I’m surprised Amy and Joe have separated. I thought they were ___ ___.
9 A lot went wrong during our holiday because it was ___ ___