Moulay Ismail University

School of Arts and Humanities,

French Studies
Course: Langue 2 - Semester 2
Teachers: Ms. Ouidad Infi (GRs. 1, 2, 3, 4) ; Ms. Soukaina Oulaich (GRs. 5, 6, 7, 8)

Lesson 4: Adverbs

Outline:
I. Adverbs in English
II. Comparison
III. Exercises

I. Adverbs in English

Adverbs describe or modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, and sometimes a sentence,
but not a noun or a pronoun. An adverb can be a word like ‘incredibly’ or a phrase like ‘last
night’.

There are different kinds of adverbs:

1) Adverbs of manner: quickly, bravely, happily, hard, fast, well, incredibly

2) Adverbs of place: here, there, near, upstairs, outside, over there, below …
3) Adverbs of time: now, soon, yet, still, then, today, immediately, afterwards …
4) Adverbs of frequency: twice, often, never, always, occasionally, weekly, almost ….
5) Adverbs of degree: very, fairly, quite, too, hardly, nearly, really, so …
6) Adverbs of certainty: certainly, surely, definitely, obviously, undoubtedly, probably

 This lesson will only focus on adverbs of manner.

An adverb of manner tells us how something is done or how something happens.

→ Where do adverbs of manner come from?

Well, most adverbs of manner are formed by adding -ly to the corresponding adjective.

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Ex: slow → slowly, quick → quickly, sad → sadly, quiet → quietly, soft → softly, strong →
strongly, honest → honestly, interesting → interestingly, dangerous → dangerously, cheap →
cheaply

o He speaks quietly.
o Salim ran quickly.

 Position of adverbs of manner in a sentence:

1. After the main verb if there is no auxiliary verb:
o She danced beautifully.

2. After the object:

o They speak English well.
o She does her job professionally.
→ Do not put an adverb between the verb and the object.
Ex: They speak well English. (WRONG)

3. If the object is long, the adverb is normally placed before the verb.
o She carefully planned the last few days of her stay in London.
o They secretly decided to leave the town.

4. In the construction verb + preposition + object, the adverb is placed either after the
object or before the preposition:
o He looked at me suspiciously. / He looked suspiciously at me.
o He replied to my letter quickly. / He replied quickly to my letter.
→If the object is long, the adverb is put before the preposition.
o He looked suspiciously at everyone who got off the plane.
o He replied quickly to my letter that I sent him in a fit of anger.

NOTE !  For adjectives than end with -y, the y is changed to -i then we add -ly.
Ex: happy → happily, easy → easily, angry → angrily, lucky → luckily
o They lived happily ever after.
o The children were playing happily.

Except for: shy → shyly

 For adjectives that end with e, we keep the e and add -ly:
Ex: extreme → extremely, brave → bravely, safe → safely, nice → nicely
o The plane landed safely.

Except for: true, due, whole (which become) truly, duly, wholly
o I am truly happy.

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  For adjectives that end with able/ible/le, we drop the final –e and replace it
with -y:
Ex: capable → capably, sensible → sensibly, incredible → incredibly, terrible →
terribly, horrible → horribly, gentle → gently
o The coffee is terribly bad.

 For adjectives that end with l preceded by a vowel, we simply add –ly :
Ex: final → finally, beautiful → beautifully, careful → carefully
o She drives carefully.
o The sisters dressed beautifully for the occasion.

 For adjectives that end with –ic, we add –ally at the end of the adjective.
Ex: basic → basically, tragic → tragically, economic → economically, logic →
logically
o She writes simply and economically.

Keep in mind: Not all words ending in –ly are adverbs. There are adjectives, nouns, and verbs
that also end with –ly including:

 Adjectives: friendly, silly, lonely, ugly, lovely, lowly, likely …

→ There is no adverb for an adjective ending in –ly.
In this case, we either use an adverb with a similar meaning or an adverb phrase.
o He behaved in a silly way. / She spoke in a friendly way. (adv. phrase)
o Likely (adj.) = probably (adv.)

 Nouns: ally, bully, Italy, melancholy, holy,

 Verbs: apply, rely, supply, comply,

Remark ! Some adverbs have no particular form and some have the same form as the
adjective:

Adjective Adverb
good well
fast fast
far far
deep deep
direct (in a straight line) direct
hard hard
high high
low low
late late
near near
pretty pretty
straight straight
wrong wrong
early early

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 Ex: As an adjective As an adverb
high a high mountain The bird flew high.
hard The work is hard. They all worked hard.
fast a fast train The train went fast.
straight Draw a straight line. He went straight home.
pretty She is a pretty girl. The problem is pretty difficult.
good He is a good student. He studies well.

II. Comparison

There are three degrees of comparison: Positive, Comparative, and Superlative.

1. Positive

The positive form means no comparison is made. The adverb mainly describes the verb,
adjective, adverb, or phrase attached to it and no change is applied to the adverb.

o He drove slowly.
o She ran incredibly fast.

2. Comparative

The comparative form is used to compare two things.

 With adverbs ending in –ly, we form the comparative form by adding ‘more’ before
the adverb.
Ex : o quietly → more quietly
o slowly → more slowly
o seriously → more seriously
Except for: early → earlier

- Sirius shines more brightly than all the other stars.

- The teacher spoke more slowly to help us understand.
- Could you sing more quietly please?

 With one-syllable adverbs, we form the comparative form by adding –er to the adverb.
Ex : o hard → harder
o fast → faster
o high → higher

- They work harder than us.

- They arrived earlier than she did.

Sometimes, it is also possible to use this form with adverbs: the + comparative … the +
comparative.

- The earlier you start, the sooner you’ll be back.

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 - The more, the merrier.

3. Superlative

The superlative form is used to compare three or more things.

 With adverbs ending in –ly, we form the superlative form by adding ‘most’ before the
adverb.
Ex : o quietly → most quietly
o slowly → most slowly
o seriously → most seriously
Except for: early → earliest

- It was the most beautifully designed chair.

- Mark listens most attentively of all students.*

NOTE: you can also find the superlative adverb used without ‘the’. In this case, it is mostly
used as an intensifier having the meaning of ‘very’.

Ex : - She behaved most generously.

- The play was most tastefully performed.

 With one-syllable adverbs, we form the superlative form by adding –est to the adverb.
Ex :: o hard → hardest
Ex
o fast → fastest
o high → highest

- He arrived the earliest, so we he had to wait for the others.

- Everyone in the race ran fast, but John ran the fastest of all.*

* It is common to find ‘of all’ after a superlative adverb.

Exceptions! There are what are called ‘irregular adverbs’. For these adverbs, the rules
mentioned above don’t apply to them. They change to different words.

Positive Comparative Superlative

well better best
badly worse worst
little less least
many more most
much more most
late later latest
far further furthest (of distance and time)
farther farthest (of distance only)

Ex : o The little boy ran farther than his friends.

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III. Exercises

1. Transform the following adjectives into adverbs.

perfect →
quiet →
careful →
regular →
nice →
terrible →
heavy →
good →
hard →
fantastic →

2. Use the appropriate form of the words in brackets, either as adjectives or adverbs.
a. He works _____________. (slow)
b. Sarah is a ______________ singer. (good)
c. You can ____________ open this tin. (easy)
d. He is a ____________ driver. (careful)
e. He sings the song _____________. (good)
f. He drives the car __________________. (careful)
g. The dog barks _____________. (loud)

3. Fill in the correct adverb form (comparative or superlative) of the adjectives in brackets.
Ex: I speak English (fluent) more fluently than last year.

a. She greeted me (polite) _______________ of all.

b. She smiled (happy) _________________ than before.
c. The girl dances (graceful) _________________ of all.
d. Could you write (clear) __________________?
e. Planes can fly (high) ______________than birds.
f. He had an accident last year. Now, he drives (careful) ________________ than before.
g. Jim can run (fast) ______________ than John.
h. Our team played (bad) ____________ of all.
i. He worked (hard) ______________ than ever before.

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 4. Underline the adverbs in the text and answer the following questions.

Leila Balter is a journalist and she travels to different countries for work. “I learn
languages quickly, …” she explains. At the moment , she lives in Egypt. She can
speak Arabic well since her mother is Moroccan and they speak together. She says:
“ My job is exciting. I find out about people’s lives and write reports. I write quickly.
A slow journalist isn’t very useful! I have one problem, I spell badly! I always rely
on my dictionary. I work really hard. That’s Ok because I love my job, but sometimes
I enjoy sitting quietly and reading. Everybody needs to relax!”

a- Why does Leila speak Arabic well?

b- What problem does Leila have in writing?
c- Does she think about changing her job?

ANSWERS
Exercise 1:

perfect → perfectly
quiet → quietly
careful → carefully
regular → regularly
nice → nicely
terrible → terribly
heavy → heavily
good → well
hard → hard
fantastic → fantastically

Exercise 2:

a. He works slowly. (slow) ADV.

b. Sarah is a good singer. (good)
c. You can easily open this tin. (easy) ADV.
d. He is a careful driver. (careful)
e. He sings the song well. (good) ADV.
f. He drives the car carefully. (careful) ADV.
g. The dog barks loudly. (loud) ADV.

Exercise 3:

a. She greeted me (polite) most politely of all.

b. She smiled (happy) more happily than before.
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c. The girl dances (graceful) most gracefully of all.
d. Could you write (clear) more clearly?
e. Planes can fly (high) higher than birds.
f. He had an accident last year. Now, he drives (careful) more carefully than before.
g. Jim can run (fast) faster than John.
h. Our team played (bad) worst of all.
i. He worked (hard) harder than ever before.

Exercise 4:

Leila Balter is a journalist and she travels to different countries for work. “I learn
languages quickly, …” she explains. At the moment, she lives in Egypt. She can
speak Arabic well since her mother is Moroccan and they speak together. She says:
“My job is exciting. I find out about people’s lives and write reports. I write quickly.
A slow journalist isn’t very useful! I have one problem, I spell badly! I always rely
on my dictionary. I work really hard. That’s Ok because I love my job, but
sometimes I enjoy sitting quietly and reading. Everybody needs to relax!”

a- Leila speaks Arabic well because her mother is Moroccan.

b- She spells badly.
c- No, she does not think about changing her job because she loves it .

If you need any help or clarification, please contact us:

Contact information:
 Ms. Ouidad Infi : ouiddad_infi@yahoo.com
 Ms. Soukaina Oulaich : osoukaina38@gmail.com