1. This is a pretty/ prettily complicated situation.

2. They had hard/hardly been home for a minute when the phone rang.

3. My friends are most/mostly vegetarians.

4. Her loose outfit allowed her to move free/freely.

5. The shelf was so high/highly that he couldn’t reach it.

6. John may be late/lately home tonight, as he has a lot of work to do.

7. The room was pretty/prettily decorated.

8. Children under five years old travel free/freely.

9. Sue has near/nearly finished her homework.

10. They have been going out a lot late/lately.

11. This college is high/highly recommended for its range of courses.

12. The miners dug deep/deeply to find coal.

13. The new supermarket is very near/nearly our house.

14. He is deep/deeply involved in the scandal.

15. We found it hard/hardly to get used to living in a foreign country.

16. Which of Mel Gibson's films do you like most/mostly?

Exercise 9.Choose the necessary word.

1. The treasure was buried (deep/deeply) underground.

2. He is (deep/deeply) in love with her.

3. The hotel guests can use the swimming pool (free/freely).

4. The animals in the safari park can roam (free/freely).

5. The kite flew (high/highly) in the sky.

6. He is a (high/highly) respected doctor.

7. She arrived (late/lately) for the meeting.

8. He hasn’t been feeling well (late/lately).

9. As he came (near/nearly), I realized that something was wrong.

10. She (near/nearly) fainted when she heard the news.

11. He is a (pretty/prettily) strange man.

12. She is always (pretty/prettily) dressed.

13. He is working (hard/hardly) these days.

14. They (hard/hardly) go anywhere now that they have children.

15. Which of his songs do you like (most/mostly)?

16. I’m (most/mostly) interested in modern art.

17. He lives quite (near/nearly).

18. You’ve come too (late/lately).

19. The mechanic examined the damaged car (close/closely).

20. It is (pretty/prettily) difficult to speak to her.

21. We have seen very little of you (late/lately).

22. I used to work (hard/hardly) to get everything I have got now.

23. His suggestion seemed (high/highly) improbable to us.

24. Her house stood (close/closely) to the river.

25. The wind was blowing so (hard/hardly) that I could (hard/hardly) walk.

26. The plane flew (high/highly), we could (hard/hardly) see it.

27. (Short/Shortly) after graduating I moved to the capital.

DEGREES OF COMPARISON OF ADVERBS

· Most adverbs are invariable. But certain adverbs of manner can change for degrees of comparison.

· The degrees of comparison of adverbs are formed in the same way as those of adjectives.

ü Monosyllabic adverbs and the adverb early form the comparative and the superlative degrees by adding the suffixes -er and --est.

e. g. hard - harder - hardest

near - nearer - nearest

soon - sooner - soonest

early - earlier - earliest

ü The degrees of comparison of all other adverbs are formed by placing more and most before them.

e. g. beautifully - more beautifully - most beautifully

quickly - more quickly - most quickly

cautiously - more cautiously - most cautiously

cleverly - more cleverly - most cleverly

ü A few adverbs have irregular degrees of comparison.

 e. g. well - better - best

badly - worse - worst

much - more - most

little - less - least

N.B.! Notice that it is only the comparative degree of adverbs that is actually found in English.

 e. g. He ran faster than the wind.

Little Martha danced even more beautifully than her sister.

In the combinations most beautifully, most wisely, etc. most is an adverb of degree denoting very.

It is only the superlatives best, most and worst that are actually found in English.

e. g. John’s sister Marian was very nice to me, and I liked her best of them all.

None of us played well, but Jack played worst that day.

EXERCISES

Exercise 1. Give the comparative and the superlative of the following adverbs.

Fast, hard, late, slowly, carefully, clearly, fluently, regularly, intensively, well, closely, far, little, long, much, early, badly, often, near, fast.