318. Adverbs Modify Adjectives

An adverb usually modifies an action verb, but sometimes an adverb modifies an adjective.

Beautiful is an adjective.
We can use the adjective beautiful to modify (or describe) the noun night.
It was a beautiful night.

Now let’s use an adverb to modify the adjective beautiful:
It was a very beautiful night.
It was an exceptionally beautiful night.
It was an extremely beautiful night.
It was an amazingly beautiful night.
It was a really beautiful night.
It was an unusually beautiful night.

Let’s try it with the adjective loud modifying the noun music.
The band played loud music.
The band played very loud music.
The band played really loud music.
The band played extremely loud music.

We sometimes use an adverb to modify an adjective.

  • Now you try it. Find the adverb modifying an adjective in this sentence: That was a really hard test in English class. Did you pick out the word really ? Good for you!