Welcome to your Adjectives and Adverbs 2 lesson! In this topic we talk about:
• “Good” and “Well”
• “Fast” / “Hard” / “Late”
• “Hardly”
Take the quizzes when you’re ready! If you’re having problems, use the comment box to contact our English Teachers.
“Good” and “Well”
“Good” is an adjective, the adverb version is “Well”:
“Your English is good.“
“You speak English very well.”
“She is a good singer.”
“She sings very well.”
“Well” is used with past participles:
“He is always well-dressed.”
“After seven years of higher learning, he is very well-educated.”
“Reunion is becoming more and more well-known.”
“Well” is also an adjective, but it means “in good health”:
“How are you?” “I’m well, thank you.“
“Fast” / “Hard” / “Late”
These three words are both adjectives and adverbs:
“He is a fast runner.“
“He runs very fast.“
“She is a hard worker.“
“She works very hard.”
“You are late!“
“He has been working late recently.“
“Lately” means “Recently”:
“Have you played tennis lately?“
“Hardly”
“Hardly” means “almost never” or “very little”:
“We hardly go hiking any more.”
“They’ve only met twice, they hardly know each other.”
“Hard” and “hardly” do not mean the same thing:
“He really tries hard at work.”
(he makes a big effort)“He hardly works any more.”
(he does almost nothing)
“Hardly” can be used with “any+” (anything, anyone etc.)
“The town is almost empty, hardly anyone lives there.”
“How much time do we have?” “Hardly any.“
“We need to go shopping, there’s hardly anything in the fridge.“
Note that you can say:
“We did hardly anything.”
or
“We hardly did anything.”“They’ve hardly got any money.”
or
“They’ve got hardly any money.“
“Someone can hardly + verb” means “It’s difficult for someone to do.”:
“The writing is illegible, I can hardly read it.”
“My head was really hurting, I could hardly concentrate.”
“Hardly ever” means “almost never”:
“I like to stay at home at the weekend, I hardly ever go out.”
“Hardly” also means “certainly not”:
“You have eaten three helpings of dinner! It’s hardly surprising that you feel sick.”
“Things are really bad but it’s hardly a catastrophe.”
