Adverbs - The Positive, Comparative and Superlative

Like adjectives, some adverbs also have three forms—the positive, the comparative and the superlative.

Let us look at some adverbs and their different forms.

Where the comparative and superlative are formed by adding ‘−er’ and ‘−est’

Positive Form	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
Fast	Faster	Fastest
Gagan runs fast. Girish runs faster than Gagan. Ganesh runs the fastest in his class.
Hard	Harder	Hardest
Aarti works hard. Aarti has worked harder than ever before. Aarti has worked the hardest this week.
High	Higher	Highest
My paper plane flies high. Your paper plane does not fly higher than mine. Among a paper plane, a real plane and a bird, a real plane flies the highest.

Where the comparative and superlative are formed by adding ‘more/less’ and ‘most/least’

Positive Form	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
Wisely	More wisely	Most wisely
Solomon judged wisely. Satish judges more wisely than Solomon did. Pankaj judges most wisely when he is in a good mood.
Fluently	More fluently	Most fluently
He speaks English fluently. They speak English more fluently than their teacher. The people of Timbuktoo speak English most fluently.
Noisily	More noisily	Most noisily
Jamal entered the room noisily. Jijo goes about his daily chores more noisily than the others living in his room. Together, Jamal and Jijo work most noisily.

Irregular adverbs

Positive Form	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
Badly	Worse	Worst
Tony’s kid sister bowls badly. Tony’s kid brother bowls worse than her. Tony bowls the worst of the three.
Well	Better	Best
Tina writes well. Meena writes better than her. Reena writes the best of the three.
Much	More	Most
My friend Tinku blabbers much. Tinku says that I blabber more than him. Our teacher says that we both blabber the most in class.
Little	Less	Least
Papi exercises little. He says that his friend Jhapi exercises less than him. Topi, the king of laziness, exercises the least of the three.
Far	Farther	Farthest
Ravi threw the discus far. Nikita threw it farther than him Bilal threw it the farthest of the three.