Difference Between Adjective and Adverb

Adjective vs Adverb
Adjectives and adverbs are among the eight parts of speech in English language. There is a lot of difference between an adjective and adverb on the basis of their usage and types. Adjective is a word that describes, qualifies and identifies a noun or pronoun, whereas an adverb describes a verb, adjective or other adverbs. An adjective usually, but not all the time, comes before the noun or the pronoun which it describes. For example: the leaves of that tree are yellow. Here yellow is the adjective describing leaves (noun).

Another difference between adjectives and adverb is that an adjective usually answer one of a few different questions like “What kind?” or “Which?” or “How many?” For example: The beautiful princess wore a silk gown. Beautiful and silk are the adjectives which answer ‘What kind’; whereas an adverb answer to few questions such as “how,” “when,” “where,” and “how much”. For example: The baby slept soundly. The adverb soundly answers to the question ‘how’. Adverbs mostly end in ‘ly’. But there are certain exceptions, in which the ‘ly’ forms adjective rather than adverb – for example, friendly, early etc., whereas adjectives have three forms of expression. They are in positive degree or comparative degree or superlative degree. For example: hot, hotter or hottest.

The difference between adjectives and adverbs is that an adjective modifies a pronoun. For example: They had worked all day and they were tired. The adjective, ‘tired’, tells more about the pronoun ‘they’, whereas an adverb modifies adjectives and other adverbs. For example: “That woman is extremely nice.” Nice is an adjective that modifies the noun woman. Extremely is an adverb that modifies nice.

The next difference between adjectives and adverbs is on the basis of their types. An adjective can be divided into several classes such as: (a) Adjective of quality: For example, Kolkata is a large city. (b) Adjective of quantity: For example, I ate some rice. (c) Adjective of number: For example – The hand has five fingers. (d) Demonstrative adjective: For example – these mangoes are sour. (e) Interrogative adjective: For example – Which way shall we go? Whereas an adverb is classified into the following types: (a) Adverb of time: For example, He came late (b) Adverb of frequency : For example, I have told u twice (c) Adverb of place : For example, Come in (d) Adverb of manner : For example, The boy works hard (e) Adverb of degree : For example, I am so glad (f) Adverb of affirmation and negation : For example, He certainly went, I do not know him (g) Adverb of reason : For example, He therefore left school (h) Interrogative adverb : For example, Where is Chris? (i) Relative adverb: For example – this is the reason why I left.

Henceforth, both are parts of speech in English language but have major differences between them on the basis of their usage and types. Basically or broadly an adjective defines a noun and an adverb describes a verb.
Summary:
1.Adjective is a word that describes, qualifies and identifies a noun or pronoun, whereas an adverb describes a verb, adjective or other adverbs.
2.Adjective modifies a pronoun but adverb modifies an adjective.
3.Adjective comes before the noun or pronoun it describes.

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