Words can change the meaning of a sentence depending on where they’re placed in the sentence. My focus here is specifically on adverbs and adjectives. We need to pay attention to the word we want to modify.
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns that replace nouns.
Sometimes, we may think we're using an adverb when we actually need an adjective because the word we really need to modify is a noun or a pronoun.
Here's an example:
I almost ate the whole pie.
This sentence may be used to indicate that I ate most of a pie, but it really means I came close to eating the entire pie but didn’t. I may not have even touched it. The adverb "almost" (meaning not quite) comes before "ate" (the action), so the action may not have happened at all.
Here's another example:
I only called you.
This sentence may be used to show I didn't call anyone else, but it really means I didn’t text or contact "you" in any other way. If we want to express that we didn't call others, we should say:
I called only you.
So we should always pay attention to where we place our modifiers.
