Avoid These Common Adverb Mistakes

Students are often confused by these rules.

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

I was reviewing adverbs with a student the other day, and after asking her if she remembered what they were, she gave me a definition of an adjective.

“No. That’s not what an adverb is,” I told her. “An adverb is a word that describes or modifies a verb.”

After a quick review, I noticed there were 3 common mistakes many students make.

Here’s what they are:

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Using Comparative and Superlative Forms

A lot of students get confused about when to use comparative and when to use superlative.

So, here’s the rule I tell them:

You use comparative adverbs (more, -er) for comparing 2 people or things.

Examples:

• My car is faster than yours.
• She speaks more fluently than her brother.

You use superlatives (most, -est) when you compare 3 or more people or things.

Examples:

• My car is the fastest one in this community.
• Out of the 3 siblings, she speaks the most fluently.

However, on the rare occasion that the adverb ends in -y (not -ly), you don’t follow this rule.

Instead, you remove the -y and add an -i. And then you add -er or -est.

For example:

Funny — Funnier — Funniest

Comparative Adverb Forms

Many people (not just students) get confused about when to use “more” and “most” and when to add -er and -est to form comparative and superlative adverbs.

For instance, let’s say they want to turn the adverb “fast” into a comparative and a superlative.

They would be confused about what to use:

–Is it more fast or faster?

–Is it most fast or the fastest?

Here’s the tip I give my students:

• If the word has one syllable, add -er or -est.
• If the word has more than one syllable, use more or most in front of the adverb.

(The correct answers to the questions are: faster and fastest.)

This rule also applies if the adverb ends in -ly… which is another rule students are confused with.

Comparative Adverbs Ending In -ly

This rule confuses some students because it has a different ending.

And because of this, they think you have to do something special when transforming them, like with irregular verbs.

But to make adverbs ending in -ly comparative or superlative, you just follow the previous rule because they have more than one syllable.

For example, let’s use “calmly.”

• Comparative: More calmly
• Superlative: Most calmly

And that’s it.

Conclusion

Hope this helped clarify the rules for you.

Before you go, try fixing these adverbs:

• More hard
• Carefullest
• Loudlier

If you found this post useful and would like more practice, check out my grammar workbooks here.