adjective or adverb?

[Elham M.]

hello there,
English can be really confusing sometimes
i need HELP please!
in this sentence: I hate arriving LATE
is late an adverb or an adjective here? in one of the quizes in this site (Q5)it says late is an adverb.
if late is an adverb then how come it modifies the NOUN (object) arriving? i know that arriving is a gerund, and gerunds are nouns, and i know that adverbs can't modify nouns. so is there a special rule for gerunds?

[Tdol]

It describes the manner of your arriving.

[Elham M.]

It describes the manner of your arriving.

that's not what i mean, i don't need to know what does it describe.
well,
i know that adjectives can modify nouns only, and adverbs modify:1-verbs,2-adjectives,3-other adverbs.
so the question here is:
if LATE is an adverb, then how come it modifies the noun ARRIVING?

[Tdol]

You're oversimplifying things a bit here, in my opinion. the gerund is a kind of noun, but it has verbal qualities, so they can be modified by adverbbs:
Driving well is important.
Here, as I said, it describes the manner of the driving. Where you describe the manner with a gerund, use an adverb. You can also say 'good driving', so there is room for both- it depends which is more important- in your example with 'arriving', the manner of the arriving is important.
One last things, adverbs can modify many things- not just the ones in your list- they can modify whole sentences, etc.

[Elham M.]

you are right i guess, i just hoped there's a rule that i can go according to, but seems not
thank you for your posts much appreciated
regards,

[dihen]

And why is it also incorrect to say "I came the latest" as "I the latest came"? Or "I like that best" as "I best like that"?

[Tdol]

I came the latest- this would be OK in a context where we understand who the others were that arrived earlier.
Word order in English is not always very flexible- we can't just move things around the sentence. English is a language where words don't agree with each other, so they are limited in their ability to move around- otherwise it just gets confusing to know what is modifying or accompanying what.