Word Formation – English Grammar Exercises for B1
You are giving your friend advice before their road trip. Choose the best option (A, B, C, or D) to complete each sentence.
1 “Congratulations on getting your license! Please promise me that you will always drive ______ on the highway.”
(a) safe
(b) safely
(c) safety
(d) dangerously
2 “When you are driving at night, you need to watch the road ______ because visibility is low.”
(a) carefully
(b) careful
(c) care
(d) carelessly
3 “If it starts raining, don’t panic. Just reduce your speed and drive ______.”
(a) slowness
(b) slowly
(c) slow
(d) fastly
4 “Make sure to clean your windshield so you can see the cars ahead of you ______.”
(a) clearness
(b) clear
(c) unclearly
(d) clearly
5 “Try to press the brake pedal ______ instead of stopping the car abruptly.”
(a) smoothly
(b) smooth
(c) smoothness
(d) roughly
6 “Before you even start the engine, make sure you adjust your mirrors ______.”
(a) properly
(b) proper
(c) property
(d) improperly
7 “I know you are excited about your new car, but please avoid driving ______.”
(a) danger
(b) dangerous
(c) safely
(d) dangerously
8 “Never change lanes ______; always use your turn signal first.”
(a) sudden
(b) suddenly
(c) suddenness
(d) expectedly
9 “You must follow the speed limits ______ when you are driving through a school zone.”
(a) strictly
(b) strict
(c) strictness
(d) loosely
10 “Remember that you cannot ______ use your mobile phone while holding the steering wheel.”
(a) legally
(b) legal
(c) legality
(d) illegally
11 “If it snows ______, just pull over to the side of the road and wait.”
(a) heavy
(b) heaviness
(c) heavily
(d) lightly
12 “If a wild animal jumps out in front of your car, you will need to react ______.”
(a) quick
(b) quickly
(c) quickness
(d) slowly
13 “With your new prescription glasses, you should be able to read the road signs ______.”
(a) easily
(b) easy
(c) easiness
(d) hardly
14 “Always watch the traffic lights ______ so you don’t miss a red light.”
(a) attentive
(b) attentively
(c) attention
(d) inattentively
15 “If an aggressive driver honks at you, just breathe deeply and react ______.”
(a) calmly
(b) calm
(c) calmness
(d) angrily
16 “When you get stuck in a long traffic jam, you just have to wait ______.”
(a) patient
(b) patience
(c) impatiently
(d) patiently
17 “Make sure you park the car ______ between the white lines so you don’t get a ticket.”
(a) correct
(b) correctly
(c) correction
(d) incorrectly
18 “You must stop ______ at every stop sign, even if the road looks empty.”
(a) completion
(b) complete
(c) incompletely
(d) completely
19 “Now that you have a driver’s license, you have a duty to behave ______ on the road.”
(a) responsibly
(b) responsible
(c) responsibility
(d) irresponsibly
20 “Please take my advice ______; driving is a big responsibility, not a video game.”
(a) serious
(b) seriousness
(c) seriously
(d) playfully
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (b) safely
- Why it is correct (The Key): The verb “drive” requires an adverb of manner to describe how the action is performed. Adjective (safe) + ly = Adverb (safely).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Common Mistake: Many B1 learners say “drive safe,” but grammatically, adjectives modify nouns, not verbs. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: The opposite of the intended advice.
2 (a) carefully
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “watch”. Adjective (careful) + ly = Adverb (carefully).
- Distractor Analysis: (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun/Base Verb. (d) Meaning Trap: “Carelessly” means without care, which is bad advice.
3 (b) slowly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “drive”. Adjective (slow) + ly = Adverb (slowly).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Structural Error: Noun. (c) Common Mistake: Adjective. (d) Meaning Trap: “Fastly” is not a word (the adverb of fast is just fast), and driving fast in the rain is dangerous.
4 (d) clearly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “see”. Adjective (clear) + ly = Adverb (clearly).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Structural Error: Noun. (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Meaning Trap: “Unclearly” means with blurry vision, contradicting the goal of cleaning the windshield.
5 (a) smoothly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “press”. Adjective (smooth) + ly = Adverb (smoothly).
- Distractor Analysis: (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: “Roughly” contradicts the advice of not stopping abruptly.
6 (a) properly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “adjust”. Adjective (proper) + ly = Adverb (properly).
- Distractor Analysis: (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: Adjusting mirrors “improperly” is unsafe.
7 (d) dangerously
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “driving”. Because of the word “avoid,” we need a negative adverb: Adjective (dangerous) + ly = Adverb (dangerously).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Structural Error: Noun. (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Meaning Trap: Avoiding “safely” driving makes no sense.
8 (b) suddenly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “change”. Adjective (sudden) + ly = Adverb (suddenly).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: Opposite meaning.
9 (a) strictly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “follow”. Adjective (strict) + ly = Adverb (strictly).
- Distractor Analysis: (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: “Loosely” means not strictly, which is bad advice for a school zone.
10 (a) legally
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “use”. Adjective (legal) + ly = Adverb (legally).
- Distractor Analysis: (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: You cannot legally use it (using it illegally is what people do when they break the law, but the sentence says “you cannot legally…”).
11 (c) heavily
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “snows”. Note the spelling change: Adjective (heavy) → drop ‘y’, add ‘i’ + ly = Adverb (heavily).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Common Mistake: Adjective. (b) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: Pulling over for “lightly” snowing isn’t usually necessary.
12 (b) quickly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “react”. Adjective (quick) + ly = Adverb (quickly).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: Reacting “slowly” to an animal jumping out will cause a crash.
13 (a) easily
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “read”. Spelling change: easy → easily.
- Distractor Analysis: (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: “Hardly” means almost not at all, which contradicts having “new glasses”.
14 (b) attentively
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “watch”. Adjective (attentive) + ly = Adverb (attentively).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: “Inattentively” means without paying attention.
15 (a) calmly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “react”. Adjective (calm) + ly = Adverb (calmly).
- Distractor Analysis: (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: Reacting “angrily” leads to road rage.
16 (d) patiently
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “wait”. Adjective (patient) + ly = Adverb (patiently).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Common Mistake: Adjective. (b) Structural Error: Noun. (c) Meaning Trap: “Impatiently” contradicts the advice of just having to wait.
17 (b) correctly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “park”. Adjective (correct) + ly = Adverb (correctly).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: Parking “incorrectly” will result in a ticket.
18 (d) completely
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “stop”. Adjective (complete) + ly = Adverb (completely).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Structural Error: Noun. (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Meaning Trap: Stopping “incompletely” (a rolling stop) is illegal.
19 (a) responsibly
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb “behave”. Spelling rule: Words ending in -ble change to -bly. Responsible → Responsibly.
- Distractor Analysis: (b) Common Mistake: Adjective. (c) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: Behaving “irresponsibly” is bad advice.
20 (c) seriously
- Why it is correct (The Key): Modifies the verb phrase “take my advice”. Adjective (serious) + ly = Adverb (seriously).
- Distractor Analysis: (a) Common Mistake: Adjective. (b) Structural Error: Noun. (d) Meaning Trap: Taking advice “playfully” contradicts the tone of the warning.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
1 The Purpose of Adverbs of Manner
When you want to describe how an action is performed (e.g., how someone drives, how someone reacts), you must use an Adverb of Manner. A very common mistake for English learners is using an Adjective to describe a verb (e.g., saying “drive safe” instead of “drive safely”).
Always remember the golden rule:
- Adjectives modify Nouns/Pronouns: “You are a safe driver.”
- Adverbs modify Verbs: “You drive safely.”
2 Forming Adverbs from Adjectives
The general rule is to add the suffix -ly to the end of an adjective.
- slow → slowly
- quick → quickly
- careful → carefully
3 Crucial Spelling Rules
You must pay attention to adjectives that end in “y” or “ble”:
- Adjectives ending in consonant + “y”: Change the “y” to “i” before adding “-ly”.
- heavy → heavily
- easy → easily
- Adjectives ending in “-ble”: Drop the “e” and add “y”.
- responsible → responsibly
- comfortable → comfortably