Questions: Adjectives and Adverbs: Modifiers

Question 1

In the sentence 'She sings beautifully,' what grammatical role does 'beautifully' play?

• A. Adjective modifying 'she'
• B. Adverb modifying 'sings'
• C. Adjective modifying 'sings'
• D. Adverb modifying 'she'

Answer: (B)

'Beautifully' answers the question 'How does she sing?' — that 'how?' question identifies it as an adverb. It modifies the verb 'sings,' describing the manner of the action. Adverbs cannot modify pronouns like 'she'; that role belongs to predicate adjectives. And because 'sings' is a verb, not a noun, an adjective cannot modify it.

Question 2

In the sentence 'She felt bad about the mistake,' the word 'bad' should be replaced with 'badly' because it follows a verb.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

'Felt' here is a linking verb connecting the subject 'she' to a description of her state. After a linking verb, you use an adjective (predicate adjective) to describe the subject — so 'bad' is correct. 'Badly' would be an adverb describing the manner of feeling, which changes the meaning entirely (as if her sense of touch were impaired). The good/well pair works the same way: 'I feel good' (adjective describing your state) vs. 'I play well' (adverb describing how you play).

Question 3

What is the difference between an attributive adjective and a predicate adjective? Give an example of each.

Model answer: An attributive adjective directly precedes the noun it modifies (e.g., 'the happy child'). A predicate adjective follows a linking verb and describes the subject (e.g., 'The child is happy'). Both are adjectives performing the same descriptive function, but in different sentence positions.

Recognizing the difference matters for agreement and for avoiding the adjective/adverb confusion. Both positions take adjectives, not adverbs — 'The child is happily' is wrong because 'happily' is an adverb and the predicate position after a linking verb requires an adjective.