Adverbs
PAGE 1/4 


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:  
  
  
Adjective slow quick soft sudden gradual
Adverb slowly quickly softly suddenly gradually
  

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
slowly extremely 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
effectively more effectively most effectively
frequently more frequently most frequently
  

In the formation of comparatives and superlatives, some adverbs are irregular:  

 
 
Adverb
Comparative
Superlative
well better best
badly worse worst
little less least
much more  most
  
  


Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs and adjectives have important characteristics in common -- in particular their gradability, and the fact that they have comparative and superlative forms. However, an important distinguishing feature is that adverbs do not modify nouns, either attributively or predicatively:  
 
 
Adjective
Adverb
David is a happy child *David is a happily child
David is happy *David is happily
  

The following words, together with their comparative and superlative forms, can be both adverbs and adjectives:  

early, far, fast, hard, late  

The following sentences illustrate the two uses of early 

 
 
Adjective
Adverb
I'll catch the early train I awoke early this morning
  

The comparative better and the superlative best, as well as some words denoting time intervals (daily, weekly, monthly), can also be adverbs or adjectives, depending on how they are used.  

We have incorporated some of these words into the following exercise. See if you can distinguish between the adverbs and the adjectives.  
 
 

In each of the following pairs, indicate whether the highlighted word is an adverb or an adjective:

1a. My train arrived late, as usual  
  

1b. I'm watching the late film  

Adverb   
Adjective 
  
  
Adverb   
Adjective
2a. My brother loves fast cars  
  
  
2b. He drives too fast  
Adverb   
Adjective 
  
  
Adverb   
Adjective
3a. This exercise is harder than I thought  
  
  
3b. I hope you'll try harder in future  
Adverb   
Adjective 
  
  
Adverb   
Adjective
4a. The Times is published daily  
  
  
4b. The Times is a daily newspaper  
Adverb   
Adjective 
  
  
Adverb   
Adjective
5a. You've just ruined my best shirt  
  
  
5b. Computers work best if you kick them
Adverb   
Adjective 
  
  
Adverb   
Adjective
 
 

 
 More on Adverbs...

 
 
copyright The Survey of English Usage 1996-1998
Supported by RingJohn
Online Marketing UK