Some adverbs recognize degrees of comparison.

Adverbs consisting of one or two syllables form their comparative and superlative forms by adding –er and –est.

Examples are given below.

Long -> longer -> longest

Fast -> faster -> fastest

Early -> earlier -> earliest

Some adverbs have irregular forms for the comparative and the superlative.

Examples are:

Well -> better -> best

Late -> later -> latest

Little -> less -> least

Much -> more -> most

Adverbs with three or more syllables form their comparative and superlative forms by adding ‘more’ and ‘most’.

Examples

Beautifully -> more beautifully -> most beautifully

Conveniently -> more conveniently -> most conveniently

The use of the degrees of comparison

Positive

To make comparisons using positive adverbs we use the structure as…as…

Women can work as efficiently as men.

In negative comparisons not so/as…as is used.

He does not work as / so efficiently as his brother.

Comparative

The performance ended later than we thought.

He scored faster than his partner did.

Superlatives

Of all the participants, she spoke the most fluently.

Adverb phrases

There are many established adverb phrases in English.

They are:

at random, of course, at length, in fact, in general, in short, in particular, in vain, after all, at first, at last, at best, at present, in future, by all means, by no means, by the way, by the by, upside down, up and down, to and fro, here and there, in and out, now and then, off and on, by and by etc.