Here you can find some information about how prefixes and suffixes can help to form adjectives and adverbs.

1. Word Formation
By Teacher Rosie Navarro.

2. Adverbs: forms
Adverbs ending in -ly
Adverbs have a strong connection with adjectives. Adjectives and adverbs are
usually based on the same word. Adverbs often have the form of an adjective +
-ly.

3. Adverb forms.
• Adverbs ending in -ly are usually adverbs of manner (slowly) and degree
(completely, fairly).
• Adverbs formed from adjectives ending in -l have double l:
• beautiful → beautifully, careful → carefully, hopeful → hopefully, historical →
historically
• Magda looked hopefully at her mother.
• Historically, there was never any conflict between the two communities.
• Adverbs formed from adjectives ending in -y change the y to i:
• easy → easily, busy → busily, lucky → luckily, angry → angrily
• Luckily, I had a backup copy of the data on a disk.
• I’ve never seen him react so angrily.
• Adverbs ending in a consonant +e keep the e:
• definite → definitely, fortunate → fortunately, extreme → extremely,
absolute → absolutely
• I am extremely grateful to you.
• We were absolutely exhausted at the end of it all.

4. Adverbs ending in -ward(s) or -wise.
There is a small group of adverbs which end in -ward(s) or -wise. The -
ward(s) words can end in either -ward or -wards (inward, inwards).
• 1. -wards: inwards, eastwards, upwards, downwards
• 2. -wise: clockwise, lengthwise, likewise
• The doctor asked her to move her head upwards but she
couldn’t.
• He’s the one that they all love. Whatever he does, they do
likewise. (They do the same thing.)

5. Adverbs with the same form as
adjectives
Some adverbs have the same form as adjectives. The most common are: fast (not fastly), left, hard,
outside, right, straight, late, well, and time words such as daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
Compare
adjective adverb
This coconut is really hard. You’ll need a hammer
to break it up.
You have to bang the door hard to shut it.
She drives a fast car. They can swim quite fast now actually.
An outside light would be a really good idea for our
house.
When I went outside, the light came on
automatically.
I get a monthly pay cheque. My company pays me monthly.

6. Adverbs: meanings and functions.
Adverbs have many different meanings and functions.
They are especially important for indicating the time,
manner, place, degree and frequency of something.
• Time: I never get up early at
the weekends.
• Manner: Walk across the
road carefully!
• Place: When we got
there, the tickets had sold out.
• Degree: It’s rather cold,
isn’t it?
• Frequency: I’m always losing
my keys.
Place adverbs.
• Place adverbs tell us about
where something happens
or where something is.
• There was somebody
standing nearby.
• Is that your scarf there?
• You go upstairs and do your
homework. I’ll come up in a
minute.

7. Adjectives VS Adverbs.
Manner adverbs.
• Manner adverbs tell us
about the way something
happens or is done.
• accurately beautifully
expertly
professionally
• anxiously carefully
greedily quickly
• badly cautiously
loudly quietly
Some common manner adverbs have the same form as
adjectives and they have similar meanings (e.g. fast,
right, wrong, straight, tight).
• Adjective : I was never a fast
swimmer
• Adverb:
• Driving fast is dangerous
• Adjective: All of your answers were
wrong.
• Adverb: People always spell my
name wrong.
• Adjective: Is that the right time?
• Adverb: That builder never does
anything right!
• Adjective: My hair is straight.
• Adverb: Let’s go straight to the
airport.

8. Adverbs.
Warning:
• Don’t confuse adjectives and
adverbs. Adjectives modify nouns
or are used after verbs such as
be, become, seem, look, smell,
taste.
• She walks very elegantly. (adverb
of manner, describing how she
walks)
• He wore an elegant suit and a silk
tie. (adjective describing the suit)
• She looks very elegant in that
long skirt. (adjective after look)
Adjectives ending in -ly
• Some adjectives end in -ly, e.g.
lively, lonely, ugly. We don’t form
adverbs from these adjectives
because they are not easy to
pronounce. We usually reword
what we want to say instead.
• Don’t act in a silly way.
• Not: Don’t act sillily.
• She said it in a friendly way.
• Not: She said it friendlily.

9. Adjectives.
Unlike in many other languages, adjectives in English do
not change (agree) with the noun that they modify:
• All new foreign students are
welcome to join the clubs
and societies.
• Not: All new foreigns
students …
• Every room was painted in
different colours.
• Not: … in differents colours.
Identifying adjectives
• There is no general rule for
making adjectives. We know
they are adjectives usually
by what they do (their
function) in a sentence.
However, some word
endings (suffixes) are typical
of adjectives.

10. Adjectives.
suffix examples
-able, -ible comfortable, readable, incredible, invisible
-al, -ial comical, normal, musical, industrial, presidential
-ful beautiful, harmful, peaceful, wonderful
-ic classic, economic, heroic, romantic
-ical aeronautical, alphabetical, political
-ish British, childish, Irish, foolish
-ive, -ative active, alternative, creative, talkative
-less endless, motionless, priceless, timeless
-eous, -ious, -ous spontaneous, hideous, ambitious, anxious, dangerous, famous
-y angry, busy, wealthy, windy

11. Adjectives
Warning:
• Adjectives ending in -ic and
-ical often have different
meanings:
• The economic policy of this
government has failed.
• A diesel car is usually more
economical than a petrol
one.
Forming adjectives from other
words
• Suffixes
• Some adjectives are made
from nouns and verbs by
adding suffixes.
• noun adjective
• hero heroic
• wind windy
• child childish
• beauty beautiful

12. Adjectives.
• verb adjective
• Read readable
• Talk talkative
• use useful
• Like likeable
Adjectives VS Adverbs
• I hate windy days.
• San Francisco is a very hilly
place.
• Some words ending in -ly can
be both adjectives and
adverbs. These include daily,
early, monthly, weekly,
nightly, yearly:
• Adjective: She gets a weekly
payment from her parents.
(She gets money every week.)
• Adverb: I pay my rent weekly.
(I pay my rent every week.)

13. Adjectives with prefixes.
Prefixes are letters which we add to the beginning of a word to make a new word with a different meaning. Prefixes
can, for example, create a new word opposite in meaning to the word the prefix is attached to. They can also make a
word negative or express relations of time, place or manner.
base word prefixed word type of meaning
possible impossible opposite
able unable opposite/negation
payment non-payment negation
war pre-war time (before)
terrestrial extraterrestrial place (outside of/beyond)
cook overcook manner (too much)

14. Adjectives with prefixes.
• I’m sorry I was unable to
attend the meeting.
• Non-payment of fees could
result in a student being
asked to leave the course.
• Has anyone ever really met
an extraterrestrial being?
(meaning a being from
another planet)
• The meat was overcooked
and quite tasteless.
The most common prefixes.
• prefix meaning examples
• anti- against/opposed to anti-government, anti-racist, anti-war
• auto- self autobiography, automobile
• de- reverse or change de-classify, decontaminate, demotivate
• dis- reverse or remove disagree, displeasure, disqualify
• down- reduce or lower downgrade, downhearted
• extra- beyond extraordinary, extraterrestrial
• hyper- extreme hyperactive, hypertension
• il-, im-, in-, ir-not illegal, impossible, insecure, irregular
• inter- between interactive, international
• mega- very big, important megabyte, mega-deal, megaton
• mid- middle midday, midnight, mid-October
• mis- incorrectly, badly misaligned, mislead, misspelt
• non- not non-payment, non-smoking
• over- too much overcook, overcharge, overrate
• out- go beyond outdo, out-perform, outrun
• post- after post-election, post-war
• pre- before prehistoric, pre-war
• pro- in favour of pro-communist, pro-democracy
• re- again reconsider, redo, rewrite
• semi- half semicircle, semi-retired
• sub- under, below submarine, sub-Saharan
• super- above, beyond super-hero, supermodel
• tele- at a distance television, telepathic
• trans- across transatlantic, transfer
• ultra- extremely ultra-compact, ultrasound
• un- remove, reverse, not undo, unpack, unhappy
• under- less than, beneath undercook, underestimate
• up- make or move higher upgrade, uphill

15. • https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-
britanica/adverbs-types
• https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-
britanica/adverbs-forms