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Understanding Adverbs: Forms & Usage

The document discusses the formal characteristics of adverbs. It notes that many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective. However, not all adverbs end in -ly. It also explains that like adjectives, many adverbs are gradable using words like very or extremely. Degree adverbs like very specify the degree to which an adjective or other adverb applies. The document concludes by covering how some adverbs form comparatives and superlatives, noting irregular forms like well, badly, little, much.

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Guillermo Leos
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136 views2 pages

Understanding Adverbs: Forms & Usage

The document discusses the formal characteristics of adverbs. It notes that many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective. However, not all adverbs end in -ly. It also explains that like adjectives, many adverbs are gradable using words like very or extremely. Degree adverbs like very specify the degree to which an adjective or other adverb applies. The document concludes by covering how some adverbs form comparatives and superlatives, noting irregular forms like well, badly, little, much.

Uploaded by

Guillermo Leos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Adverbs are used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb: 

 
[1] Mary sings beautifully  
[2] David is extremely clever  
[3] This car goes incredibly fast 
In [1], the adverb beautifully tells us how Mary sings. In [2], extremely tells us the
degree to which David is clever. Finally, in [3], the adverb incredibly tells us how
fast the car goes.  

Before discussing the meaning of adverbs, however, we will identify some of their
formal characteristics.  
  
  Formal Characteristics of Adverbs

From our examples above, you can see that many adverbs end in -ly. More
precisely, they are formed by adding -ly to an adjective:  
  
  
Adjectiv
slow quick soft sudden gradual
e
slowl quickl softl suddenl graduall
Adverb
y y y y y
  
Because of their distinctive endings, these adverbs are known as -LY ADVERBS.
However, by no means all adverbs end in -ly. Note also that some adjectives also
end in -ly, including costly, deadly, friendly, kindly, likely, lively, manly, and timely.  

Like adjectives, many adverbs are GRADABLE, that is, we can modify them using
very or extremely:  
 
 
softly very softly
suddenly very suddenly
extremely
slowly
slowly
  
The modifying words very and extremely are themselves adverbs. They are called
DEGREE ADVERBS because they specify the degree to which an adjective or
another adverb applies. Degree adverbs include almost, barely, entirely, highly,
quite, slightly, totally, and utterly. Degree adverbs are not gradable (*extremely
very).  

Like adjectives, too, some adverbs can take COMPARATIVE and SUPERLATIVE
forms, with -er and -est:  
 
John works hard -- Mary works harder -- I work hardest 
However, the majority of adverbs do not take these endings. Instead, they form the
comparative using more and the superlative using most:  
 
 
Adverb Comparative Superlative
recently more recently most recently
more most
effectively
effectively effectively
more
frequently most frequently
frequently
  
In the formation of comparatives and superlatives, some adverbs are irregular:  
 
 
Comparativ
Adverb Superlative
e
well better best
badly worse worst
little less least
much more  most
  

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