Word Classes

Adjectives & Adverbs

The describing words. An adjective describes a noun; an adverb describes almost anything else — a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence. Each has three fine tags for its three degrees, plus one extra for the question adverbs, and the same spelling can land on either side depending on what it is describing.

What you’ll learn

Decide adjective or adverb from what the word attaches to, not from its ending
Read the three degrees — plain, comparative, superlative — on both sides
See why longer is JJR in one sentence and RBR in the next
Know where not, today and the wh-adverbs actually sit on the coarse scale

Decide by what the word attaches to

The ending is a hint, not a rule. Most -ly words are adverbs, but friendly and lovely are adjectives; fast, early, late and hard are both, with no change of spelling. What settles it is the word being described. If you can find a noun the word describes, it is an adjective. If it describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb, it is an adverb.

The fine tags then add degree. The plain form (JJ, RB), the comparative in -er or with more (JJR, RBR), and the superlative in -est or with most (JJS, RBS). WRB is the odd one out: the question adverbs when, where, why, how.

Two categories, seven tags

ADJAdjective

A word that describes a noun — its size, colour, quality, state. It sits before the noun (a tiny weed) or after a linking verb pointing back at the subject (the soup tasted salty). Either way there is a noun it belongs to, and the Reed-Kellogg diagram hangs it on a slant under that noun.

How spaCy decides: position and lookup. A word between a determiner and a noun is nearly always ADJ; so is one after seem, taste, be. A participle that has settled into use as a description (a broken vase) is filed here rather than under VERB, though one that still reads as an event (a retired pilot) is not — see Participles.

A^DETtiny^ADJ,stubborn^ADJweed^NOUNsplit^VERBthe^DETconcrete^NOUN.

The^DETsoup^NOUNtasted^VERBsalty^ADJand^CCONJslightly^ADVbitter^ADJ.

JJAdjective

The plain, positive-degree adjective: bright, calm, salty. Also every adjective that has no other degree — ordinals like first and second, and classifying adjectives like wooden.

How spaCy decides: an adjective without a comparative or superlative ending. It is common: 42 of the corpus’s tokens carry it, more than any other tag on this page.

A^DTbright^JJkite^NNfloated^VBDabove^INthe^DTcalm^JJsea^NN.

Two plain adjectives, one before each noun:

The^DTold^JJmap^NNshowed^VBDa^DTnarrow^JJpath^NN.

JJRAdjective, comparative

The comparative adjective: longer, bigger, funnier. Two-syllable and longer adjectives form it with more instead (more careful), and in that case only more gets the comparative tag — as an adverb, RBR — while careful stays JJ.

How spaCy decides: the -er ending on an adjective, or one of the irregulars (better, worse, less). A following than is a strong clue but not required.

This^DTbridge^NNis^VBZlonger^JJRthan^INthe^DTold^JJone^CD.

We^PRPneed^VBPa^DTbigger^JJRtent^NNfor^INthe^DTtrip^NN.

JJSAdjective, superlative

The superlative adjective: ripest, worst, youngest. Usually after the or a possessive, because a superlative picks out one thing from a set. Longer adjectives use most (the most careful), and again only most carries the degree, as RBS.

How spaCy decides: the -est ending or an irregular superlative. Note that most on its own before a noun (most people) is JJS too — the corpus has that one.

Ella^NNPchose^VBDthe^DTripest^JJSpeach^NNin^INthe^DTbowl^NN.

That^DTwas^VBDthe^DTworst^JJSstorm^NNin^INdecades^NNS.

ADVAdverb

A word that describes a verb (arrived early), an adjective (rather late), another adverb (very carefully) or the sentence as a whole (surprisingly, the train arrived). It answers how, when, where, how much. Because it can attach to so many things, the dependency tree is the place to look for what a given adverb modifies.

How spaCy decides: the -ly ending, a closed list of common adverbs (very, never, quite, rather), and position next to a verb or adjective. Two things a reader expects to be adverbs are not: today and yesterday are nouns (NOUN/NN), and not is a particle (PART) — though its fine tag is still RB.

The^DETtrain^NOUNarrived^VERBsurprisingly^ADVearly^ADVtoday^NOUN.

The^DETguests^NOUNleft^VERBrather^ADVlate^ADVlast^ADJnight^NOUN.

RBAdverb

The plain adverb: slowly, very, never, quite. Also the negator not (and the n’t of a contraction), enough after an adjective, and the intensifiers that only ever modify another adverb or adjective.

How spaCy decides: an adverb with no degree marking. The tag covers both the coarse categories ADV and PART: not is RB on this scale and PART on the other, which is the model’s way of saying it is shaped like an adverb but behaves like a function word.

He^PRPanswered^VBDslowly^RBand^CCvery^RBcarefully^RB.

The^DTroad^NNis^VBZnot^RBwide^JJenough^RB.

RBRAdverb, comparative

The comparative adverb: sooner, faster, more (in more softly). Adverbs in -ly take more rather than -er, so this tag most often lands on more itself.

How spaCy decides: a comparative form modifying a verb or adverb. It is not fully consistent — later in He arrived later than the others comes back plain RB — so if the exercise disagrees with you on a comparative adverb, check the stored tag before assuming you are wrong.

The^DTsecond^JJrunner^NNfinished^VBDsooner^RBRthan^INexpected^VBN.

She^PRPspoke^VBDmore^RBRsoftly^RBafter^INthat^DT.

The^DTdays^NNSgrow^VBPlonger^RBRin^INspring^NN.

RBSAdverb, superlative

The superlative adverb: fastest, best, and most when it builds the superlative of another adverb (most quickly). Rarer than the adjective superlative, because English tends to rephrase — Ana runs fastest is more often written Ana is the fastest.

How spaCy decides: a superlative form modifying a verb or adverb. There is none in the corpus at the time of writing.

Of^INall^PDTthe^DTstudents^NNS,Max^NNPreads^VBZmost^RBSquickly^RB.

Of^INthe^DTthree^CD,Ana^NNPruns^VBZfastest^RBS.

WRBWh-adverb

The wh-adverbs: when, where, why, how. They open a question (Where did you park?) or introduce a clause (Nobody knows why the bell rang). The tag is the same in both uses.

How spaCy decides: the spelling. On the coarse scale, as the note above says, this model classes them SCONJ rather than ADV, so a WRB word is the one case on this page whose coarse category is not on this page.

Where^WRBdid^VBDyou^PRPpark^VBthe^DTvan^NN?

Nobody^NNknows^VBZwhy^WRBthe^DTbell^NNrang^VBD.

Key terms

Attributive adjective: An adjective before its noun — a tiny weed. Drawn on a slant under the noun. A tiny weed grew. The old map tore.
See: Articles, Adjectives & Objects
Predicate adjective: An adjective after a linking verb, describing the subject — the soup tasted salty. Same tag, different diagram. The soup tasted salty. The road was icy.
See: Subjective Complements
Degree: Positive, comparative or superlative — long, longer, longest. The only thing the fine tag adds to an adjective or adverb. This road is longer. That road is the longest.
Intensifier: An adverb that only scales another word — very, rather, quite. Always RB. The soup is very hot. She left rather early.
See: Adverbs

Practice on a real sentence

Two as in one sentence, and they are not the same word to the parser: the first is an adverb (RB) scaling large, the second a preposition (IN) introducing that one. The adjective in between is a plain JJ.

“This store is as large as that one.”

Parts of speech

Give every word its coarse Universal Dependencies category.

Words 0/8Attempts 0Correct 0Time 0:00

Sentence — select a part of speech below, then click the word(s) it applies to

This store is as large as that one.