Let’s talk about modifiers, in particular adverbs and adjectives. They are not the most potent parts of speech, as they exist only to tell us something about another part of speech. You probably recall that adjectives only perform this service for nouns, whereas the more versatile adverb modifies verbs, adjectives, other adverbs and even whole sentences (as in “Surprisingly, this was not true.”)
So, that said, some random notes about adverbs and adjectives.
1. Many authors – Stephen King is famous for this – warn beginning writers to avoid adverbs and adjectives wherever possible. This advice is sensible when multiple modifiers can be replaced by a single strong verb or adjective. Consider the difference between: “He ran very quickly across the field” and “He sprinted across the field.” However, I feel that adverbs and adjectives, used sparingly, add colour and nuance to writing. It is very hard, for example, to write a good description of someone or something without them.
Here's a brief passage from Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country, translated by Edward Seidensticker: “Was the sun already up? The brightness of the snow was more intense, it seemed to be burning icily. Against it, the woman’s hair became a clearer black, touched with a purple sheen.” There are several well-used adjectives and adverbs in those few sentences, yet the style is concise. And isn’t “burning icily” a wonderful oxymoron, far more interesting than just “burning” on its own?
2. “I saw old white two Victorian houses.” Sounds very wrong, doesn’t it? One of the tricker things about learning English as a first language is we instinctively construct, from hearing thousands of examples, a sense of how a series of adjectives before a noun should be organized. We’re not taught this in school, though. Applying that, we’d likely edit the sentence to “I saw two old white Victorian houses.” How does this work? There are a couple of good explanations floating around on the interweb.
A. “Generally, the adjective order in English is:
Quantity or number. Quality or opinion. Size. Age. Shape. Color.
Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material).
Purpose or qualifier.“ (Gingersoftware.com)
Image from r/coolguides)
B. “Determiner, Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, and Purpose.
This order is often remembered using the acronym DOSA-SCOMP… For example, you might describe a hat as "My favorite big old square white French cotton gardening hat.”” (r/coolguides).
There you go; when in doubt intone “DOSA-SCOMP” – and hope you can remember what the acronym stands for.
3. Things that make me yell “Get off my language lawn!”
Misuse of adverbs and adjectives is quite common. Language is a living thing, and many words shift both meaning and function over time, so some of the issues I might rail against have already been decided. For example, using the noun “fun” as a modifier, such as “It was a really fun ride.” Guess I’ll give up on that one.
However, another I will still get cranky about is making the adjective “healthy” into an adverb. I saw an ad recently that advised in big bold letters “Eat Healthy!” That should be “healthily”, but probably it too will worm its way into common usage. Most careful English speakers will avoid writing “a real good time”, using “really” instead, but it’s a common expression in the American vernacular.
Another issue is that where one places an adverb in a sentence can change the overall meaning. As an instance, I’ll move “only” around; notice how it changes the meaning each time.
Only she left me money.
She only left me money.
She left only me money.
This is a good reminder that modifiers should be, whenever possible, right before or after what they modify. Otherwise, you risk the dreaded misplaced or dangling modifier: “I bought an old car from a lady that had a rusty body but good performance.”
A construction very common on signs aimed at customers in a store or visitors to parks, etc. is “We kindly ask that you place all trash in the bins.” What’s wrong with that? The kindness lies not in the asking, but in the reader’s complying with the request. It should read “We ask that you kindly…” I’ve occasionally pointed this problem out to employees of the place hosting the signs; generally, they look puzzled and say, “Just put your trash in the bins, OK?”
With adjectives, a common error is not recognizing whether the modifier refers to something countable or that can’t be counted. An example: “We need more suggestions, not less.” “Less” can only applied to something non-countable like “water” or “grief”. It should be replaced by “fewer” here.
Now, wasn’t this a fiendishly enjoyable, yet oddly pedantic, romp through the vast unploughed waste lands of contemporary English? I hope so. Now I’m going out on my porch to shake my cane and yell at a truck going by with an adverb misuse painted on its side.
