Adverbs. Degrees of Comparison

Hello, guys! Welcome to our grammar lessons!

My best friends Maddie, Kristie and Martin will help me make our lessons useful and enjoyable.

Look at these cities: Milan, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Sydney, Barcelona, Beijing, London, Paris, Moscow.

What countries are they in?

Milan is in Italy.

Tokyo is in Japan.

Los Angeles is in the USA.

Sydney is in Australia.

Barcelona is in Spain.

Beijing is in China.

London is in the UK.

Paris is in France.

Read the facts about the people from these countries and complete the sentences.

1. They drive dangerously in (the USA)

2. They dress very stylishly in (the UK)

3. You can eat very well in France)

4. People in talk loudly. (Italy)

5. They work hard in (China)

6. People dance beautifully in (Spain)

7. People speak very quietly in (Japan)

8.  People are very friendly and love water sports in (Australia)

Good job!

Now look at the highlighted words. What part of speech are these words? Adjectives or Adverbs?

These are Adverbs.

1.                What is an adverb?

2.                How do we form adverbs?

3.                What are their degrees of comparison?

These are the questions we’ll answer today.

·                   We use adjectives (прилагательные) to describe nouns (things). Adverbs help us to describe verbs (actions).

E.g.:

She’s wearing a stylish dress. (WHAT dress? – stylish – adjective)

They dress very stylishly in the UK. (They dress HOW? – stylishly – adverb)

·                   Adverbs usually go after the verb.

E.g.:

You can eat very well in France.

People in Italy talk loudly.

Formation

We usually form an adverb be adding –ly to the adjective.

E.g.:

serious – seriously

quick – quickly

slow – slowly

Adjectives ending in –le drop the –e and take –y.

E.g.:

gentle – gently

terrible - terribly

Adjectives ending in consonant + y change it to –i and add -ly.

E.g.:

easy – easily

cozy – cozily

healthy - healthily

Adjectives ending in –l take –ly.

E.g.:

wonderful – wonderfully

careful – carefully

Not all words that end in –ly are adverbs!

The following words are the adjectives:

a friendly atmosphere

a lively conversation

a motherly attitude

a cowardly behavior

a lonely house

a lovely garden

a silly question

an ugly view

Some adverbs don’t end in –ly and have the same form as adjectives:

best (лучший – лучше всего)

long (долгий – долго)

low (низкий – низко)

right (правильный – правильно)

wrong (неправильный – неправильно)

free (свободный – свободно)

hard (трудный – усердно)

near (близкий – близко)

high (высокий – высоко)

straight (прямой – прямо)

E.g.:

Let’s practice the rules with Martin.

Put the words in the correct column:

dangerous, fast, funnily, happy, hard, lazy, nice, perfectly, safely, well.

The adjectives are dangerous, happy, lazy and nice.

The adverbs are funnily, perfectly, safely.

And words that can be both adjectives and adverbs are fast, hard and well.

Comparative and superlative forms of adverbs

Adverbs that have the same forms as their adjectives add –er to form the comparative form of adverbs.

To form the superlative form, we add -est.

long – longer - the longest

fast - faster – the fastest

hard- harder – the hardest

Two syllable or compound adverbs take more to form the comparative form of adverbs. (compound adverbs are adjectives +ly, careful - carefully).

To form the superlative form, we add (the) most.

often – more often – the most often

quietly – more quietly – the most quietly

patiently – more patiently – the most patiently

Let’s look at the most common forms of irregular adverbs.

Now it’s time to practice the rule with.

Martin’s marks weren’t very good. He’s thinking about what he can do to do better at school.

1. I will listen to the teacher more carefully.

(Carefully is a compound adverb, that’s why we add more in the comparative degree)

2. I will work harder. (Hard has the same form as an adjective, that’s why we add –er)

3. I will do my homework more regularly. (Regularly is a compound adverb, that’s why we add more in the comparative degree)

4. I will write more neatly. (Neatly is a compound adverb, that’s why we add more in the comparative degree)

5. I will behave better in class. (Well is an irregular adverb: well-better-the best)

6. I will take school more seriously. (Seriously is a compound adverb, that’s why we add more in the comparative degree)

That`s all for today.

I hope, the information was useful and informative to you.

Watch our grammar lessons more often at videouroki.net and you’ll realize that grammar is interesting.