What are adverbs of

degree?

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Adverbs of degree

Grammar Toolkit

Adverbs of degree

Adverbs of degree tell how much or the degree of something.How hard is your homework?

It’s not so hard.

It’s fairly hard.

It’s very hard.It’s extremely hard.It’s completely terrifying!

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Adverbs of degree

Choose an adverb of degree to complete each sentence. Which word is the adverb modifying?

I’m so tired that I can keep my eyes open. I believe you will make the team. Be careful! You fell from that tall tree. Can I _____ come to the game?

also much hardly greatly very rather so firmly almost nearly

hardlyfirmly

nearly veryalso

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Adverbs of degree

Adverbs of degree should go before the word you want to modify. How does the meaning of the

sentences change as the adverbs move?

Hannah nearly won all the races.

Hannah won nearly all the races.

Tom only asked Mahmoud for help.

Tom asked Mahmoud only for help.

Hannah didn’t win any races.

Hannah won most of the races.

Tom asked one person.

Tom asked for one thing.

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Adverbs of degree

Like adjectives, adverbs have three degrees of comparison.

Positive degree Comparative degree Superlative degreenearsoonearly

loudlyoften

For adverbs of one syllable, add er to make the comparative degree and est to make the superlative degree.

nearersooner

nearestsoonest

earlier earliest

more loudly

more often

most loudly

most often

For some adverbs of two syllables, also add er and est.

For most adverbs of two syllables, add more to make the comparative degree and most to make the superlative degree.

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Adverbs of degree

A few adverbs are irregular — they don’t follow a pattern.

Positive degree Comparative degree Superlative degreewell

muchbadlylittle

bettermore

bestmost

worse worstless least

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Adverbs of degree

• An adverb adds meaning to a verb, adjective or another adverb.

• Adverbs of degree tell how much or the degree of something. Place the adverb of degree before the word you want to modify.

• Like adjectives, adverbs have three degrees of comparison: positive (one thing), comparative (to compare two things) and superlative (to compare three or more things).

• There are rules for forming adverbs of degree (e.g. soon, sooner, soonest), but irregular adverbs don’t follow the rules (e.g. badly, worse, worst).

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Adverbs of degree

The End