The Grammar Doctor

Modifiers

Modifiers are words or groups of words that describe other words in the sentence.

Single word modifiers

Adjectives

Adjectives describe nouns:

The brash salesman drove his new car down the winding road.

The bright employee foiled the awkward attempt.

Adverbs

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They tell such things as how something was done or when or to what degree. They often end in " ly."

She answered the questions quickly.

Stupidly, I forgot to close the window.

My finances were depleting rapidly.

The report is almost ready.

The customer was very angry.

Nearly all the employees had gone home.

Phrases

Phrases are groups of words that function together. For example, a group of words can work together to describe a noun or a verb.

The man with the real insight was not there that day. (The boldface phrase describes the man.)

Harry gets up early in the morning. (The phrase at the end describes the verb by telling when Harry gets up.)

The phrases in these sentences are prepositional phrases.

Click here for more about sentence structure.

Do you still have questions? Email the Grammar Doctor

E-mail the Grammar Doctor
Back to Parts of Speech