Comparative adverbs
Level: beginner
We can use comparative adverbs to show change or make comparisons:
I forget things more often nowadays.
She began to speak more quickly.
They are working harder now.
We often use than with comparative adverbs:
I forget things more often than I used to.
Girls usually work harder than boys.
Level: intermediate
We use these words and phrases as intensifiers with comparatives:
| much | far | a lot | quite a lot |
| a great deal | a good deal | a good bit | a fair bit |
I forget things much more often nowadays.
We use these words and phrases as mitigators:
| a bit | slightly | rather |
| a little | a little bit | just a little bit |
She began to speak a bit more quickly.
Level: beginner
Superlative adverbs
We can use superlative adverbs to make comparisons:
His ankles hurt badly, but his knees hurt worst.
It rains most often at the beginning of the year.
Level: intermediate
We use these words and phrases as intensifiers with superlatives:
| easily | by far | much |
When we intensify a superlative adverb, we often put the in front of the adverb:
In our office, Jill works by far the hardest.
Of the three brothers, Brian easily runs the fastest.
Level: beginner
How to form comparative and superlative adverbs
We make comparative and superlative adverbs using the same rules as for comparative and superlative adjectives. For example:
| One syllable: Jill works fast. | > | faster | > | fastest |
| One syllable ending in –e: They arrived late. | > | later | > | latest |
| Two or more syllables: Alan finished the test quickly. | > | more quickly | > | most quickly |
| well: She speaks English well. | > | better | > | best |
| badly: She speaks German badly. | > | worse | > | worst |
| far: He'll go far. | > | farther/further | > | farthest/furthest |
- Comparative adverbs 1
- Comparative adverbs 2
- Superlative adverbs 1
- Superlative adverbs 2
Hello Team. Could you please help me? What is the difference between "other than" and "rather than"? In the following sentence, which one is correct?
- To reduce traffic, people are persuaded to use public transport.........than driving.
(rather - other)
Thank you.
Hello Ahmed Imam,
'other than' basically means 'except for' and 'rather than' basically means 'instead of'. So 'other than' highlights something compared to other things, whereas 'rather than' is used to speak about an option or something that was not chosen or pursued.
In this case, there are two options (using public transport or driving) and so 'rather' is the correct word to use here.
Hope that helps.
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello,
I would ask for something more about "neither" as an adverb.
I know it is used to show a common negative statement among different parts, but I struggle with the forms "Me neither" or "neither do I".
It is not easy to remember the structure.
Do you have any advice to help me become familiar with this expression?
Thank you
Hello User_1,
These forms, like related forms such as 'Me too' and 'So do I' are used when agreeing or disagreeing with someone else's position. The best way to fix them in your memory is to use them, of course. You can do this quite easily whenever you are listening to or watching something in which people express points of view, such as discussion shows, interviews, political meetings etc. Whatever language is being used, you can 'participate' as you watch or listen by responding in English and arguing with or against the people speaking. It can be a great way to practise phrases like this and also phrases for justifying, explaining, giving examples etc.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Peter, thank you!
I will follow your suggestions.
Dear teachers,
I cannot find out more sentences with "much" with "superlative adverbs", can you please give more examples ? thank you so much!
Hi lien.t,
Here are some examples.
To add extra emphasis, you can also add "very" before "much".
However, this is not a very commonly used structure overall. It's much more common to use "by far", "definitely" or some other word/phrase instead of "much".
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Thank you teacher Jonathan.
I can understand now.
Hello,
as for the expression "the more"
Come rain or shine, I try to practice English since the more I work out, the more I become familiar with it.
Does that make sense?
Although it is not easy to accept mistakes along the way.
Please, could I get feedback from the team?
Thanks
Hi User_1,
Yes, it does make sense! The phrase "the more ... the more ..." is used correctly :)
If I may make suggest, my preferred word order would be I try to practise English come rain or shine, since ... . I think that is a bit more natural-sounding, though your sentence is correct as well. Also, "practise" as a verb is usually spelled with an "s" in British English (instead of "practice" with a "c", which is a noun), and "work out" normally refers to physical exercise (e.g. in the gym) rather than learning exercises, so I suggest changing to the more work I do, the more I become familiar ... .
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your exhaustive explanation, for the suggestions on the word order and the suitable verb.
I have asked for the team feedback on my sentence in the Learning Hub session as my reply for the request "Which is your favourite idiom?"
I am sorry about that.
Hi User_1,
No worries at all :) I hope the feedback is useful to you.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello, dear experts!
could you, please, explain it to me why to say "I live nearest to the station", "I most often buy books online", "You can contact me most easily by email" - no THE, but "...finished the race by far THE fastest", "Kate did much THE worst of all students" and "my team easily played THE best" - with THE?
Hello Iryna_hn,
This is a question with some simple pointers and then a lot of very complex particular examples.
The first thing to note is that superlatives can be adjectival (describing nouns) or adverbial (describing verbs). This affects the use of the article.
When used as adjectives, the simplest thing to remember is that we always use 'the' when a noun follows the superlative:
Thus we must say
but we can say either
or
We also use 'the' when we are talking about a limited/specified group:
With adverbial use it is normal and correct to omit 'the', but there are some caveats. I'll link to some useful discussions on the topic which will give you some more information and examples, and also show you how this is a topic without a clear and simple answer!
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/107741/superlative-and-definite-article-the
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30272/superlatives-with-the/30276#30276
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello ltspb008
There's so much variation with this that it's difficult to make general statements other than that adverbs that modify other adverbials tend to go before the form they modify.
One other is that adverbials of place tend to come before adverbials of time when both come after the verb (e.g. 'We went to the beach every day' is more natural than 'We went every day to the beach').
If you had a specific sentence or adverbial in mind, please let us know.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Moroccish,
Of the two options, will take place is the more likely choice, in my view, but both are grammatically possible.
The future perfect form is used when looking back from a time further in the future. Most often, this is done with a by-phrase:
It is possible to use a time phrase beginning with in, but the point of view should be from a time further in the future. Thus you could say this if you are imagining yourself looking back from, say, the autumn:
A phrase like in three months' time can suggest a concrete time, rather than a point before which something happens, so we would usually add an adverb to avoid ambiguity:
Other forms are possible, of course: is to take place, takes place etc.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello mtoker
I probably wouldn't use either form, to be honest, but if I had to choose one I'd say 'beautifully', which is an adverbial and refers to the way the actors were dressed. I'd also say 'beautifully dressed' instead of 'dressed beautifully'. But really I would probably avoid it altogether by saying something like 'The actors' costumes were beautiful'.
All the best
Kirk
The Learn English Team
Hi Kirk
Why would you avoid either form?
Non-native, ESL teacher here and curious about your usage perspective as a native speaker.
Thanks
Hello Suryabound9,
'The actors were dressed beautiful' is not grammatically correct.
'The actors were beautifully dressed' is grammatically correct and would be fine if it's about some actors who aren't playing roles; for example, if they've gone to the Oscars and the speaker is impressed by their clothes, this sentence would be fine. I'd probably use some expression (e.g. 'to be dressed to the nines'), but this sentence is perfectly fine.
Does that help?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team