English: Adverbs

What’s an Adverb?

1.     The word which modify or tell us more about other words, usually verbs are known as Adverbs.

Examples:

·        The car moved slowly.

·        She ate greedily.

 

     

2.     Sometime adverbs tell us more about adjectives.

Example:

·        You look absolutely fabulous.

 

3.     Sometime adverbs also modify other adverbs.

Examples:

·        She plays the Guitar extremely well.

·        You’re speaking too quietly.

 

List of adverbs of degree

almost	lots
absolutely	most
awfully	much
badly	nearly
barely	perfectly
completely	positively
decidedly	practically
deeply	pretty
enough	purely
enormously	quite
entirely	rather
extremely	really
fairly	scarcely
far	simply
fully	so
greatly	somewhat
hardly	strongly
highly	terribly
how	thoroughly
incredibly	too
indeed	totally
intensely	utterly
just	very
least	virtually
less	well
little

 

 

How adverbs are formed?

Rules:

1.     Mostly an adverb is formed by adding ‘-ly’ to an adjective:

 

cheap	cheaply
quick	quickly
slow	slowly

   

      Examples:

·        Time goes quickly

·        She walked slowly to the door

·        They carefully picked up this

 

2.     If the adjective ends in ‘-y’ replace the ‘y’ with ‘i’ and then add ‘-ly’:

 

easy	easily
angry	angrily
happy	happily
lucky	luckily

 

3.     If the adjective ends in ‘-able’, ‘-ible’ or ‘le’ replace the ‘e’ with ‘y’:

 

probable	probably
terrible	terribly
gentle	gently

 

 

4.     If the adjective ends in ‘-ic’ then add ‘-ally’ after it.

 

basic	basically
economic	economically
tragic	tragically
Exception: public - publicly

 

 

 

 

 

Adverb: Comparative and Superlative

1.     Add ‘-er’ & ‘-est’ to short adverbs for comparative and superlative respectively.

 

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
hard	harder	hardest
late	later	latest
fast	faster	fastest

 

Examples:

·        Sham works harder than his sister.

·        Himanshu was the fastest in the race.

 

 

2.     Adverbs with ending ‘-ly’, for comparative use more and for superlative use most.

 

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
quietly	more quietly	most quietly
slowly	more slowly	most slowly
seriously	more seriously	most seriously

 

 

3.     Some adverbs have irregular forms of comparative and superlative

 

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
badly	worse	worst
far	farther/further	farthest/furthest
little	less	least
well	better	best

         

          Examples:

·        He is driving best today than yesterday.

·        This is less famous in our city.

 

 

 

Relative & Interrogative Adverbs:

 

1.     Relative adverbs:

    The following adverbs are used as to join the sentences,

·        Where: That’s the place where we met for the first time.

·        When: There was a Diwali festival when I was born. 

·        Why: Tell me the reason why you were late in office.

 

 

 

2.     Interrogative Adverbs:

    This type of adverbs is generally placed at the beginning of the sentence.

·        Why are you so late?

·        Where do you live?

·        How are you?

·        How much is that cost?

·        When does the bus arrive?