Adverbs Competitions!

Can you spot the seven adverbs in this recipe? The first person to correctly comment on the right adverbs will get $10 into their PayPal account! I know it isn’t a lot but I am going to start putting more competitions onto the site over time, and the prize fund will eventually grow!

So read over the three articles on Adverbs and see if you can correctly spot the seven adverbs in this recipe!

Adverbs Part One

Adverbs Part Two

Adverbs Part Three

Good luck and don't worry, this isn't an English lesson or test, it is just a bit of fun!

• Bring a pan of water to boil.

• Drop the spaghetti into water. If the pan you have is smaller than the spaghetti, slowly put it into the water and bend the spaghetti to fit.

• Rapidly boil the spaghetti for 10 minutes or so.

• Heat the oil.

• Add steak or mince and fry it quickly until brown.

• Add the tinned tomatoes and the red wine.

• Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce.

• Slowly crumble the stock cubes and stir.

• Allow the Bolognese to simmer slowly. Regularly stir to avoid sticking to the pan.

• Drain spaghetti and divide into portions.

• Spoon the Bolognese onto plates.

• Garnish and promptly serve while hot.

Facts About Adverbs - Part Three

How to spot an adverb

Adverbs can be quite complicated. This is because you cannot tell an adverb by looking at it. You can tell an adverb by what it does in a sentence.

• The play went well – The word ‘well’ describes the verb ‘went’, so ‘well’ is the adverb.

• The well had to be drained by noon – The word well in this sentence names something, therefore it is a noun

• The well water tasted foul – The word well in this sentence is used to name the type of water rather than being a describing word. The word well in this sentence is not an adverb.

When you see ‘ly’ on the end of a word in a sentence, this is usually a good indication of an adverb as this is how many adverbs are created.

The word careful is an adjective, when you add ‘ly’ to make it carefully, it becomes an adverb.

However, this isn’t a hard and fast rule and some adverbs are irregular. Not all words that end in ‘ly’ are actually adverbs. There following words do end in ‘ly’ but are not adverbs:

• Friendly

• Lovely

• Lonely

Some words are adverbs as well as adjectives. These are words that can be used in different ways in a sentence and how they are positioned will tell us whether or not they are adverbs.

The two words ‘hard’ and ‘early’ are adverbs and adjectives. When they are adjectives they tell us about people, things and places. When they are adverbs they give us more information about the verb used.

• They arrived early – adverb

• She works extremely hard – adverb

• It is still early – adjective

• She is a hard woman to get along with - adjective

You can read the other articles in this series here:

Part One

Part Two

Facts About Adverbs - Part Two

Where to place adverbs

There are usually three places where adverbs can be positioned in a sentence.

Adverbs can be placed at the beginning:

• Suddenly I had stomach ache

• I recently had a headache

Adverbs can also be placed at the end:

• I had severe stomach ache suddenly

• I had a headache recently

The majority of adverbs can be placed mid sentence which would be before the verb:

• I’m usually working on Fridays

• I never said I didn’t like you

To make sure your adverb fits into your sentence, read it aloud to see if it makes sense.

Read the other articles in this series here:

Part One

Part Three

Facts About Adverbs - Part One

Adverbs are the words that give us more information about verbs. The adverbs add information to the verb. An example of a verb is a doing word or a being word – feel, walk.

When you use adverbs in sentences it makes them much more interesting.

Every verb you use in a sentence can have an adverb added to it.

• The boy smiled nervously

• The girl grinned sheepishly

We usually use adverbs to describe how something happens:

• The couple walk (how?) quickly

We also use adverbs to describe when or where something happens:

• We met her (when?) yesterday

We use adverbs to describe how often something happens:

• He gets a taxi (how often?) daily

Adverbs are usually formed from adjectives. Adjectives are describing words that tell us more information about nouns. This is done by adding ‘ly’ at the end of the adjective.

• Slow – Slowly

Some words may change in spelling when they change to adverbs. If the adjective ends with the letter ‘y’, you will have to change that ‘y’ into an ‘I’ before you actually add the ‘ly’.

• Scary – Scarily

• Happy – Happily

• Heavy – Heavily

You can read the other articles in this series here:

Part Two

Part Three

Why Do We Freelance?

There are a lot wonderful reasons to become a freelance writer. Staying at home to be with the family more, being able to work on your own timescale and because we love to write.

What do you love to write about? I write about many different subjects every day, some of them are exciting and interesting, others are not!

Over the last few days I have been able to write about VOIP – Voice over Internet Protocol, some interesting history articles based around famous sports figures, foreclosure and a few travel tips.

While I love writing, there are a few subjects that I find really difficult to write about. When you are being paid to write, finding it difficult isn’t an option.

Being a freelance writer at home with a one year old can be strenuous at times. The distractions are many and finding the energy can be difficult. One of the best ways that I have found to combat this problem is to remember why you are working from home in the first place.

Here is my reason for working from home...



What's your reason for working from home or wanting to work from home?

Do you know what Root Words are?

A root word is a word that stands alone but also has the ability to make other words. The root word will have its own meaning and nothing added to either the beginning (prefixes), or the end (suffixes). From these root words you can then go on to create to new words by adding prefixes and suffixes.

For example, the word clear is a root word. If you add either prefixes and/or suffixes to the root word you can make new words:

• Unclear

• Clearly

• Cleared

All of these words have been developed from their original root word. Notice that all of the words share the same root word spelling and they are also related in terms of connotation. With regards to the spelling, not all the additional words will have the exact same spelling of the root word.

The other words formed from a root word is what is known as a word family.

Look at these root words and see the word families that come from them:

Use: user, usable, used, useless, using, misuse

Employ: employee, unemployment, employer, employing, employment,

Manage: manageable, manager, manages, unmanageable, managing,

Beauty: beautifully, beautiful, beautician

Faith: unfaithfully, faithfully, unfaithful, faithful

Act: acting, inaction, action, acted

Add: additional, addition

Confuse: confused, confusing

Love: loving, lover, loveable, loved, lovely, loveliest, lovelier, unloved

Of course not all root words can be used in their entirety. Some are cut short when used with other prefixes and suffixes. Let’s look at a few other root words and their associated families.

Excite: excitable, excitement, exciting, excitable, unexciting

Happy: happier, unhappy, unhappier, unhappiest, happiness, unhappiness

Produce: production, produced, producer

Apply: applicant, application

Wealthy Writer

I thought I would share a website I have come across on my travels.

Wealthy Writer is a great website with information on marketing, getting traffic to your blog or website, writing and much more.

Written in a relaxed manner, it makes for light and easy writing when you are taking a break!

Have fun reading!