About this worksheet
Twelve sentences, each offering a pair of words that differ by three letters. Lila skated smooth or smoothly around the rink, the kitten is very quiet or quietly, Maya sang beautiful or beautifully at the show. A two-color key across the top carries the rule the whole page runs on: an adjective describes a noun, an adverb describes a verb.
The pairs are built so the sentence, not the word, holds the answer. Both options are real words a third grader already uses, so nothing can be settled by spelling alone and the child has to find what is being described first. Six of the twelve land on the adjective and six on the adverb, which keeps the page from falling into a rhythm that can be answered without reading.
What students will practice
- Choose between an adjective and its -ly adverb
- Decide whether a word describes a noun or a verb
- Read the whole sentence before choosing
Details
- Grade level
- Grade 3
- Subject
- Reading · Grammar
- Standard
- CCSS L.3.1.a
- Pages
- 1
- Format
- PDF · US Letter and A4 included
- License
- Free for classroom use · Attribution appreciated
- Last updated
- September 1, 2026
