Form and Comparison of Adverbs

Adverbs are used to express how something is done (adjectives express how someone or something
is). Example: The dog sleeps quietly. The dog is absolutely quiet.

Form In general: adjective + -ly

adjective adverb

slow slowly

Exceptions in spelling

exception example

silent e is dropped in true, due, whole true → truly

y becomes i happy → happily

le after a consonant is dropped sensible → sensibly

after ll only add y full → fully

Adjectives ending in -ic: adjective + -ally (exception: public-publicly)

adjective adverb

fantastic fantastically

Adjectives ending in -ly: use ‘in a … way / manner’ or another adverb with similar meaning

adjective adverb

friendly in a friendly way

in a friendly manner

likely probably
Exceptions

adjective adverb (meaning) adverb (meaning)

good well

difficult with difficulty

public publicly

deep deep (place) deeply (feeling)

direct direct directly (=soon)

hard hard hardly (=seldom)

high high (place) highly (figurative)

late late lately (=recently)

most most mostly (=usually)

near near nearly (=almost)

pretty pretty (=rather) prettily

short short shortly (=soon)

The following adjectives are daily, enough, early, far, fast, hourly,
also used as adverbs little, long, low, monthly, much, straight,
(without modification): weekly, yearly, …

Comparison Comparison (-er/-est)

Comparative ending in -er Superlative ending in -est

one-syllable adverbs (hard) harder hardest

adverbs with the same form as adjectives (early) earlier earliest

Comparison (more / most)

Comparative formed with more Superlative formed with most

adverbs ending in -ly (happily) more happily most happily

Irregular comparisons

positive form comparative superlative

well better best

badly worse worst

ill worse worst

little less least

much more most

far (place + time) further furthest

far (place) farther farthest

late (time) later latest

Exercises

1. Find the adjective in the first sentence and fill the gap with the adverb.

Joanne is happy. She smiles happily.

The boy is loud. He shouts ______________________ .

Her English is fluent. She speaks English _________________________ .

Our mum was angry. She spoke to us _____________________________.

My neighbour is a careless driver. He drives ________________________________.

The painter is awful. He paints ____________________________________.

Jim is a wonderful piano player. He plays the piano ________________.

This girl is very quiet. She often sneaks out of the house __________________.

She is a good dancer. She dances really ____________________________________.

This exercise is simple. You _________________________ have to put one word in each space.
 2. Write down the correct form of the word in brackets (adjective or adverb).

slow slow ly
3. Tom is (slow) . He works .
4. Sue is a (careful) girl. She climbed up the ladder .
5. The dog is (angry) . It barks .
6. He acted (excellent) . He's an actor.
7. They learn English (easy) . They think English is an language.
8. Max is a (good) singer. He sings .
9. It's (awful) cold today. The cold wind is .
10. Dogs rely on their noses as they can smell (extreme / good) . If that
is true, why does dog food smell so (terrible) ?
11. The little boy looked (sad) . I went over to comfort him and he looked at
me .
12. I tasted the soup (careful) but it tasted (wonderful) .

3. Fill in the blank with the correct comparative form of the adverb (in parentheses):
EX: He is singing more loudly than the other singers.

1. He arrived __________________ than expected. (early)

2. We walked _________________________ than the rest of the people. (slowly)
3. They called us ___________________________ in the afternoon. (late)
4. My mother and my sister talked ____________________________the other guests. (loudly)
5. He hit his arm __________________________ than before. (hard)
6. The Spanish athlete ran ______________________ than the other runners. (fast)
7. Jim threw the ball _______________________ than Peter. (far)
8. We answered all the questions ________________________ than the other students. (well)
9. Our new teacher explains the exercises ________________ than our old teacher. (badly)
10. The new mechanic checked the car _____________________________ than the old mechanic.
(thoroughly).