Adjectives and adverbs

As you have seen in our last lesson, adjectives answer to the question “Какой?”, “Какая?”, “Какое?”, “Какие?” (What kind of?). It qualifies a noun and always agrees with it:

Хуан красивый молодой человек. (Juan is a handsome young man.)

У Анны тихий голос. (Anna has a soft voice.)

Марина и Ира весёлые девушки. (Marina and Ira are cheerful girls.)

Adverbs answer to the question “Как?” (How?). It doesn’t change in gender or number and modifies the verb:

Хуан пишет очень красиво. (Juan has a nice writing.)

Анна говорит тихо. (Anna speaks quietly.)

Они весело работают и отдыхают. (They work and rest cheerfully.)

How to make an adverb:

Many Russian adverbs are formed from adjectives. If the adjective ends with –ский, then you change it to –ски and add по– before it:

Русский (adj) – по-русски (adv): (Russian – In a Russian way)
Мама читает русский журнал. (Mum is reading a Russian magazine.) 
Она говорит по-русски. (She speaks Russian.)

Женский (adj) – по-женски (adv): (feminine – woman-like) 
Сестра читает женский журнал в комнате. (My sister is reading a woman magazine in her room.)

In other cases, the end of the adjective is replaced by -o:

Хороший (adj) – хорошо (adv): (good – well) 
Сегодня погода хорошая. (Today the weather is good.)
Он хорошо говорит по-русски. (He speaks well Russian.)

Грустный (adj) – грустно (adv): (sad – sadly)
Маша читает грустный роман. (Masha is reading a sad novel.)