Adverbs can be used to compare and contrast this similar action. The comparative form of a word is used to compare two actions, and the superlative form of a word is used to refer to one in a group of three or more that is the outstanding example of the action.
When we’re dealing with one-syllable adverbs, we use the suffix -er or -est, or we use the words less or least.
Say we have the word late. To get to the comparative form of the word late, we just add the suffix -er to make it later. If we have two people and one person is late by an hour and the other person is late by two hours, we refer to the person late by two hours as being the later one.
Then if we have three or more people and one person is late by three hours, we refer to them as being the latest person. That’s a superlative form. We’re just adding these suffixes, and for later, we’re just adding -r, and forf latest, we’re just adding -st because we already had e from late.
Now, to look at this with a more negative sense, you could use the words less or least. You could refer to one person as being less late and another person is being at least late.
Now, when you have an advert with two or more syllables, you don’t use a suffix anymore; you just use the words more or most, or less or least.
We have the word carefully. If two people both do something carefully, you would say that one person did it more carefully. You could also say that one person did it less carefully, depending on how you want to look at it.
With the superlative form, if you have three or more, you would refer to one person as doing it the most carefully. Then, you can refer to the person who wasn’t very careful as being the as doing something the least carefully.
Now, we do something called regular adverbs. What I mean by irregular is that they’re irregular in the way you form the comparative and superlative forms of the adverb.
For example, we have the word well. Now, the comparative form of the word well is better, and the superlative form is best. As you can see, better and best aren’t in any way close to the word well, so you just have to be familiar with using regular adverbs and be familiar with how to form the comparative and superlative forms of those words.
Again, adverbs can be used to compare and contrast dissimilar actions. We use the comparative form when we’re comparing to actions, and we use the superlative form when we’re comparing three or more actions.
