Adjectives /Nouns + prepositions

Adjectif + Préposition

   afraid of                   angry with                     bad at                        interested in            married to

   frightened of          crowded with                 good at                     successful in             polite to  

   short of                   pleased with                  brilliant at                                                      similar to

   tired of                    disappointed with  

Adjectives and adverbs

A-   Look at these examples:

• Our holiday was too short - the time went very quickly.

• The driver of the car was seriously injured in the accident.

Quickly and seriously are adverbs. Many adverbs are made from an adjective + -ly:

Adjective	quick	serious	careful	quiet	bad	heavy
Adverb	quickly	seriously	carefully	quietly	badly	heavily

Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. Some adjectives end in -ly too, for example:

Friendly / lively / elderly / lonely / silly / lovely

B- Adjective or adverb

Adjectives (quick/careful etc.) tell us about a noun. We use adjectives before nouns and after some verbs, especially be:

• Tom is a careful driver, (not 'a carefully driver')

• We didn't go out because of the heavy rain.            

• Please be quiet.

• I was disappointed that my exam results were so bad.

We also use adjectives after the verbs look/ feel/ sound etc.

• Why do you always look so serious?

Compare:

She speaks perfect English                 

                Adjective + noun

Compare these sentences with look:

• Tom looked sad when I saw him. (= he seemed sad, his expression was sad)

Adverbs (quickly/carefully etc.) tell us about a verb. An adverb tells us how somebody does something or how something happens:

• Tom drove carefully along the narrow road, (not 'drove careful')

• We didn't go out because it was raining heavily, (not 'raining heavy')

• Please speak quietly, (not 'speak quiet')

• I was disappointed that I did so badly on the exam, (not 'did so bad')

• Why do you never take me seriously?

She speaks English perfectly.

       Verb + object + adverb

Tom looked at me sadly. (= he looked at me in a sad way)

C- W e also use adverbs before adjectives and other adverbs. For example:

- reasonably cheap » (adverb + adjective) 

- terribly sorry        » (adverb + adjective)

- incredibly quickly  » (adverb + adverb)

          

• It's a reasonably cheap restaurant and the food is extremely good.            

• Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to push you. (not 'terrible sorry')

• Maria learns languages incredibly quickly.                                                      

• The examination was surprisingly easy.

You can also use an adverb before a past participle (injured/ organised/ written etc.):

• Two people were seriously injured in the accident, (not 'serious injured')

• The meeting was very badly organised.