§ 3. Morphological characteristics

The only pattern of morphological change for adverbs is the same as for adjectives, the degrees of comparison. The three grades are called positive, comparative, and superlative degrees.

Adverbs that are identical in form with adjectives take inflections following the same spelling and phonetic rules as for adjectives:

early late hard slow

- earlier - later - harder - slower

- earliest - latest - hardest - slowest

Several adverbs ending in -ly (e.g. quickly, loudly) form comparatives according to the same pattern, dropping their adverb-forming suffix. These adverbs acquired the form in -ly only recently and retained the older forms of the comparative and superlative:

quickly loudly

-quicker -louder

- quickest - loudest

However most disyllabic adverbs in -ly and all polysyllabic ones form the comparative and superlative analytically, by means of more and most:

wisely softly deeply

- more wisely - more softly - more deeply

- most wisely - most softly - most deeply

The adverb often occurs with both types of comparison:

often	oftener more often	oftenest most often
quickly	quicker more quickly	Quickest most quick
slowly	slower more slowly	Slowest most slowly
easy	easier	Easiest

As with adjectives, there is a small group of adverbs with comparatives and superlatives formed from different stems (suppletive forms). These comparatives and superlatives are identical with those for the corresponding adjectives and can be differentiated from the latter only syntactically.

well badly little much far

- better - worse - less - more -further - farther

- best - worst - least - most - furthest - farthest

(E.g. Which do you like best? This is least painful for you).

Either farther (farthest) or further (furthest) are used when speaking of places, directions, or distance:

(E.g. He is too tired to walk any farther (further).

But only further (furthest) is used with the meaning more, later:

(E.g. Don’t try my patience any further).

Most of the adverbs, however, stand outside the degrees of comparison:

pronominal adverbs denoting place and time

(here, somewhere, there, sometimes, when), denoting manner (somehow, thus), and

adverbs of manner denoting gradation (minimally, optimally, proximally - ближе к центру).

Some adverbs have two forms, one without –ly and one with –ly. These forms have different meanings and uses: hard\hardly, last\lastly, late\lately, near\nearly, high\highly.

Adjective	Adverb without “-ly”	Adverb with “-ly”
He is a hard worker.	He works hard.	I could hardly understand him.
He returned in late autumn.	I went to bed late yesterday.	I haven’t seen him lately.
He is studying the history of the Near East.	He lives quite near.	It’s nearly 5 o’clock.
The house is very high.	The plane flew very high.	It is a highly developed state.

We use intensifiers to strengthen adverbs: much\far

Гораздо - much (E.g. She works much harder than you.)

Намного, значительно - far (E.g. It happens far more often).