Question

Identify the word which the adverb modifies:
She is running very fast.
a. Is running
b. Very
c. Fast
d. She

Answer 1

Hint: To be able to distinguish between the given words, the meaning and usage of adverbs must be known.

Complete answer:
An adverb is the part of speech that dictates, usually by succeeding, a verb or an adjective and expresses a relation between one word/clause to another word or element in the clause. For example, He was busy working with his project and therefore was talking slowly. Here, ‘slowly’ is the adverb in the sentence. It defines how an action is being carried out.
 Option a, ‘is running’ is a verb, it is the only verb in the sentence and it is being modified by the adverb. Hence, option ‘a’ is a correct choice.
Option b, ‘very’, it is neither the modifier nor the modified. Hence, clearly the option ‘b’ is an incorrect choice.
Option c, ‘fast’ in itself is neither the modifier nor the modified. Hence option ‘c’ is an incorrect option.
Option d, ‘she’ is a pronoun, which is a different part of speech than verbs. Hence option ‘d’ is an incorrect choice, as well.
Clearly, option a, is the correct answer.

Note: The most important part of solving this question would be to the meaning and usage of adverbs and then the options that follow.