Using Early, Fast, Late, Non-stop, Live

Have you ever come across words that can be taken as adjectives as well as adverbs? The 5 common words that can be used as adjectives and adverbs are early, fast, late, non-stop, live. Let's begin with early.

early used as an adjective to describe Nancy
Nancy was early today. She reached the office at 7 am instead of 8 am. If you replace early with an adjective you know well such as sad, you'll realize why I say early is used as an adjective to describe Nancy.

early used as an adverb to describe the verb come
Can you come early? If you replace early with an adverb you know well such as quickly, you'll find that early is an adverb in this case.

fast used as an adjective to describe the bullet train
The bullet train is fast. Commuters can reach their destination in just minutes.
Replace fast with a more familiar adjective such as new, you'll understand why I say fast is used an adjective.

fast used as an adverb
If I ask you: How does the horse gallop? Your answer will be: The horse gallops fast. Therefore, fast describes the verb gallops and it's used as an adverb.

late used as an adjective to describe Tom
Tom was late this morning because he missed the bus. Replace late with a familiar adjective such as unhappy, and you'll understand.

late used as an adverb to describe the verb arrived
Laura arrived late this morning.

non-stop used as an adjective to describe train
The non-stop train will take us to Kuala Lumpur without stopping for transit.

non-stop used as an adverb to describe the verb complained
The customers complained non-stop and we didn't know how to deal with them.
Just replace non-stop with rudely and you'll understand.

live used as an adjective to describe goldfish (pronounced as "laif")
There are six live goldfish swimming in the aquarium. (opposite of live is dead)

live used as an adverb to describe the verb telecast (pronounced as "laif")
The final football match will be telecast live on TV.

Note that live is a homograph. It has two different pronunciations.
When used as a verb it's pronounced as "lif", such as I live in Sunrise Garden. When used as an adjective or adverb, it's pronounced as "laif".

Click on "vocabulary" for more words and phrases.

By Susan L
On 12/06/2009 04:06:00 AM
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Using Early, Fast, Late, Non-stop, Live

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