Words have distinctive meanings, and depending on their roles in a sentence, those meanings might change.

I invite you to explore the sometimes confusing and contentious relationships between adjectives and adverbs—a relationship that many speakers and writers are not aware of. This becomes obvious when the statements they envision as quote-worthy and Pulitzer Prize-award-winning contenders end up backfiring or being ignored.

The problem arises when the writer or speaker dismisses the importance of choosing appropriate adjectives.

The problem could also arise when that person chooses to add adverbs when none are needed or to choose the wrong adverbs when they are needed. The result? The possible star of that sentence—the adjective—is suddenly upstaged by an adverb or the wrong adverb. Adverbs are supposed to modify—strategically heighten the presence—of an adjective. But what if the adverb causes confusion or cliché-induced boredom or sabotages the performance (the message or statement)?

Most of us have been there—whether we realize it or not. That’s because we might not be aware of the guidelines to help us make effective and accurate adverb decisions:

1. Be intentional when choosing adjectives.

Appropriate adjectives are powerful on their own and often do not need adverbs to further clarify their meaning.

However, some people rely on adverbs to bolster their every-day vernacular. Let’s use the adjective “cool” as an example.  Because “cool” is used mainly as slang and has no specific meaning, people use it to describe what they define as positive. The use of “cool” elicits two results: the people using it don’t have to think, and those listening have to discern what each “cool” means.

But a more advanced step does exist: This is where those speaking and writing enlist the help of adverbs to make “cool” even more important and to heighten their own communication prowess. Adding adverbs, their vernacular transitions to: “very cool” or “really cool.” (two go-to vocabulary words: juxtaposed)

If they felt inspired enough to do so, what could they do instead of abdicating their responsibility as communicators to those reading or listening? They could put effort into choosing the appropriate  adjectives and start saying phrases such as, “That’s fascinating/exceptional/life-changing/enjoyable/memorable/etc.” Each of those words communicates different thoughts—thoughts that could reveal ideas and concepts that could have gone unshared, unexamined, and unlearned because of predictable and information-impoverished adverb/adjective combinations.

To avoid this situation, search for specific adjectives—adjectives that seem to have been created for these exact communication challenges. Fight the temptation to precede these hand-picked adjectives with adverbs.

Most specifically selected adjectives don’t need to be bolstered/scaffolded by one or more adverbs. As you’ll discover as you read further, those adverbs could add to or distract from the significance of the adjective, and even sabotage the message.

This guideline overlaps with our next guideline, which contains examples for both guidelines #1 and #2.

2. Choose the correct adverbs.

Adverbs—correct/appropriate ones—are warranted when people haphazardly choose their adjectives or if they’ve searched and can’t seem to find the perfect word. That’s when the adjective we’ve chosen might need a nudge.

If that adjective is incomplete and needs an adverb to further clarify your message, take the time to find and choose the precise adverb.

If you choose from your go-to vocabulary, you might inadvertently choose adverbs that have the opposite intended effect.

For example, when something is pretty amazing, is it more amazing? Or is it less amazing? Before adding an adverb, think about what you’re about to write or say. You may be sabotaging or diluting your message.

By a show of hands at a recent workshop I conducted, 90% of the participants felt the word “pretty” demoted the rank of the adjective it modified.

They were right.

For example, how do you feel about these sentences?

• Your account is pretty safe.
• That is pretty true.
• That project was pretty effective.
• That heartbeat-detecting device is pretty amazing.
• This article is pretty interesting.

Now, how do you feel about these sentences?

• Your account is safe.
• That is true.
• That project was effective
• That heartbeat-detecting device is amazing.
• This article is interesting.

These two sentence groups show us two important concepts:

• As an adverb, “pretty” confuses people. Even though it is a flattering, affirming word, it diminishes. Avoid it.
• The sentences that contained no adverbs were straightforward and stronger.

Here is an example of the use of needless adverbs—to the extreme:

I attended a presentation where a highly respected leadership coach said, “I really, really, really, really emphasized to this CEO client that . . ..”

By the time we all finally heard the word emphasized, we didn’t perceive that word as the important, stand-alone, emphatic word that it is. Instead, we experienced it as a weak word—and we perceived the highly esteemed coach as less competent. That’s because she felt she needed to bolster her comment by adding not just one superfluous adverb (“really”) but three more in order to emphasize the word “emphasize!”

Imagine what we would have experienced if she had said, “I emphasized to this CEO client that. . ..” We would have clung to her every word, eager to hear what she had the courage and audacity to emphasize to the CEO—not suggest, not hint—emphasize! But, unfortunately, thanks to the four preceding adverbs, “emphasize” was drained of its emphasis.

Most adjectives don’t need your help, and you do them a disservice by modifying them with words that sabotage their meaning. Instead of defaulting to your go-to adjective vocabulary, search for the exact adjective—not scaffolded or propped up with adverbs that might diminished, minimize, distract, upstaged or clutter the verbiage with words such as really, very, entirely, awfully, literally, pretty, etc.

3. Check to see if your adjective is absolute. If so, don’t use adverbs with them.

Absolute adjectives are complete in themselves. Dictionary.com’s first definition of the word “absolute” is: “free from imperfections; complete; perfect.”

You’ll want to be aware of absolute adjectives, identify them, and treat them with the caution they demand.

For example, someone cannot be very unique, very dead, very unequaled, or very superior. Something cannot be sort of excellent, sort of incomparable, sort of perfect, or sort of unsurpassed.

Here is a list of several absolute adjectives to reference and memorize:

We have just focused on the power of adjectives and their relationship to adverbs.

Instead of defaulting to your habitual, go-to adjectives, search for the exact adjective—–an adjective that is the closest to perfect or absolute. If adverbs are needed, be sure to use the correct ones that clearly direct and/or complete the adjective’s purpose.

If you master the relationship between intentionally choosing specific adjectives and, if need be, adverbs, you are a couple of steps closer to creating simpler, clearer, and less complicated messages—a sign of a confident and competent communicator.