Identify an adverb

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — In "The baby giggled loudly," your child points to loudly and says it tells how the baby giggled.
• — Your child finds soon in "We will eat soon" and knows it is an adverb even though it does not end in ly.
• — Your child can tell you that very in "a very cold morning" tells how cold, so it describes another describing word.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Find the action word first

   An adverb most often tells more about a verb, the action word in a sentence. Find what somebody did, then ask how, when, or where they did it.

2. 02

   Ask how, when, and where

   In "Dad cooked quickly," quickly tells how. In "We cooked yesterday," yesterday tells when. In "Put the pot here," here tells where. All three are adverbs.

3. 03

   Do not trust the ly ending

   Many adverbs end in ly, like softly and carefully. Many do not, like soon, often, here and very. And some ly words are adjectives, like friendly and lovely, because they describe a noun. Always ask what the word is telling about.

4. 04

   Meet very and its cousins

   Words like very, quite and too tell how much. In "The tea is very hot," very tells how hot, so it describes hot, which is an adjective. That makes very an adverb too.

5. 05

   Hear the pair side by side

   Say "the quiet cat" and then "the cat sat quietly." Quiet describes the cat, a noun. Quietly tells how it sat, a verb. Hearing the two together is the exact choice the next lesson asks for.

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Say: "My sister sang softly." Ask your child for the adverb and what it tells.

   Listen for  Softly. It tells how she sang.

2. Try 2

   Say: "Grandma visits often." Ask your child for the adverb.

   Listen for  Often. It tells when Grandma visits, or how often she comes. There is no ly, so your child has to listen for the job the word does, not the ending.

3. Try 3

   Say: "We parked outside." Ask which word tells where.

   Listen for  Outside. It tells where we parked, so it is an adverb in this sentence.

4. Try 4

   Say: "The lovely garden grew slowly." Ask which of the two ly words is the adverb.

   Listen for  Slowly, because it tells how the garden grew. Lovely describes the garden, a noun, so it is an adjective even though it ends in ly.

5. Try 5

   Say: "The soup was too salty." Ask which word tells how salty.

   Listen for  Too. It describes salty, which is an adjective, and that makes too an adverb. This is the hardest kind, so a pause here is normal.

Watch for

• — Calling every ly word an adverb. Ask what the word describes: a noun means it is an adjective, and an action means it is an adverb.

If it is not there yet

• — Act it out. Call out a verb and an adverb, like "walk slowly" or "clap loudly," and let your child do it. Then switch, and let your child give you the orders.
• — Stay with ly words that tell how, like slowly and loudly, until those come quickly. Then add soon, here and very.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 18

  Choosing Between an Adjective and an Adverb

  Needs it because A child cannot choose between two forms without recognizing both of them on the page.