Native English speakers often make mistakes when they're speaking English.
And one of the main ways that they make mistakes is with comparative adverbs.
Okay, so comparative adverbs, where do we start? Let's take a look. So in today's lesson,
we'll learn what adverbs do. We need to understand if the word you're looking at is an
adverb or an adjective because it might be the same word like fast, but is it functioning as
an adverb or an adjective? And then we're going to take a close look at what comparative adverbs
do and why we use them. And then we're going to answer a tricky question, which is, which one is
correct? Do we say quicker or more quickly? Do we say slower or more slowly? So what do adverbs do?
Well, if we think about it, simply adverbs show how something is done. So take a look at number
one here, you speak. How do you speak? Or number two, she understands? How does she understand?
Or number three, he writes, How does he write? In what way does he write? So let's add some adverbs
here. Number one you speak, how, clearly. Number two she understands easily. And number three,
he writes quickly. Now, these adverbs have an L Y ending? What we've done is taken the base word
clear and made it clearly or easy and made it easily or quick and made it quickly.
So that's what adverbs do. Now, take a look at these ones here. These are also adverbs showing
how. We have fast, hard and high as in, you speak fast, or she works hard, or he jumps high. These
are also adverbs, because what they're doing is they are modifying or adding information to
the verb. So you speak fast. Can you see how fast influences or changes that verb, you speak fast?
She works hard, he jumps high. Notice that these adverbs, fast, hard and high, look exactly the
same as adjectives. So sometimes it's confusing when you're learning English because you will
look at a word like fast and the word fast can be an adverb, or it can be an adjective.
So you need to know when it's functioning as an adverb and when it's functioning
as an adjective. How do we do this? How do we know? Let's take a look. So adverb or adjective.
So take a look at number one, you speak fast. Here. It's an adverb. The word fast is functioning
as an adverb. Why? Because it's showing how. Take a look at number two, you are a fast speaker.
Here, it's the same word fast. But in this sentence, it's functioning as an adjective. Why?
Because it's describing the noun, speaker, what type of speaker? A fast speaker.
It's not modifying or influencing or adding information to the verb.
It's influencing the noun. So when you look at a word like fast, it could be an adverb or an
adjective. And the only way you can tell is if you understand what the word is doing, what it does,
what's its function. Let's take a look at two more examples so this becomes clear or clearer.
So take a look at number one here. You work hard. So hard here is an
adverb. Why? Because it's adding information to the verb 'work'. How do you work? You work hard.
Now, take a look at sentence number two, you are a hard worker. Here. It's not an adverb.
It's an adjective. Why? Because what it's doing is adding information to the noun.
It's describing the noun 'worker', you're a hard worker, what type of worker are you, a hard
worker. So you need to understand what the word does in order to identify what type of word it is.
So far we've understood what an adverb does or what it is, and it shows how.
And we've also looked at how sometimes an adverb and adjective are exactly the same word, but they
function differently depending on what they're doing in the sentence. Now we're going to turn
our attention to comparative adverbs. So this is a type of adverb. Let's take a closer look.
What do comparative adverbs do? Well, comparative adverbs compare how. Look at number one, you speak
more clearly than me. Look at number two, she understands more easily than Tom.
What about number three? He writes more quickly than Joe. Okay, let's look at number one again. So
you speak clearly, that's the adverb. You speak more clearly. That's the comparative adverb.
And if we're going to compare something, we need two things to compare. So you speak more clearly
than me. Make sure you pay attention to the word 'than'. Number two, she understands. How does
she understand? Well she understands easily? What about if we make it a comparative adverb?
Well, she understands more easily than Tom. Number three, he writes, how does he write? He writes
quickly. And if we're comparing two people, he writes more quickly than Joe. So here we're using
an adverb and we're changing it to a comparative adverb by adding more quickly or slowly or easily
than, and we're comparing the way two people do something. Let's look at some more examples.
So this time, we don't have the L Y adverbs, we have the E R adverb, so you speak faster than me.
She understands easier than Tom. And he writes quicker than Joe.
And again, these are comparative adverbs. This time they don't have the more,
they use the E R, and that's still fine, because they're functioning as adverbs.
They're influencing or adding information to the verb 'speak', 'understand', and 'write'.
Okay, and this is where native English speakers often make mistakes, and this is your opportunity
to be more accurate than a native speaker. So when you're thinking about a sentence,
and you're thinking, Okay, is it quicker or more quickly? Is it easier or more easily?
Is it slower or more slowly? Let's take a look. So which one is correct? Is it adverb
plus E R like quicker, or more adverb like more quickly? Let's start by looking at the word fast.
So you speak faster than me. What about number two? You speak more fastly than me? Well,
number two is just incorrect. We never say fastly. In fact, we never say any of these words,
hardly, highly, lately or longly. If they're functioning as adverbs. Sometimes we can use
them as adjectives, but not in these types of sentences. So he drives more fastly than me is
wrong. He works more hardly than me is wrong. He jumps more highly than me is wrong. He comes
to work more lately than me is also wrong. And he works more longly than me is also incorrect.
It's wrong. So these are all incorrect. Let's see if we can fix them. Take a look at this.
So he drives faster than me is correct. He works harder than me is correct. He jumps higher than me
is correct. He comes to work later than me is correct. And he works longer than me is correct.
So for some of these words, like fast, you cannot say more fastly because it's just simply
incorrect. You have to say faster. Let's look at another one. Okay, compare these two sentences.
She understands easier than Tom.
And number two, she understands more easily than Tom. These are both adverbs, they're
both adding information to the verb understands to understand easier or understand more easily,
which one is clearer? Well, number one is a little bit unclear. She understands easier than Tom.
Number two is better. It's clearer. She understands more easily than Tom. So some
native speakers will be a little bit lazy when they're speaking. And they'll say something like
she understands easier than Tom. But it's not very clear. If you want to make your sentences clear,
you should use the more L Y, like more easily than Tom. This is better, it's clearer. Let's
take a look at another set. So compare these two sentences, you speak quicker than me.
Number two, you speak more quickly than me. Both of these sentences are accurate, and they're both
fine. They're both clear, you speak quicker than me, you speak more quickly than me. In fact,
they mean the exact same thing. The only difference here is number two is more
formal than number one. So if you're in a really formal setting, or you're writing an exam,
you'll probably want to use more quickly than then quicker, it's just a little bit more formal,
and will help to boost your test score or make you sound a little bit more formal. So do you
understand comparative adverbs? What I want you to do now is to listen to this conversation between
a teacher and a student. And in every sentence, there's going to be a comparative adverb. Can you
understand how these comparative adverbs work, and why the teacher and the student are using them?
Listen carefully, and see if you can understand them. Tom, could you speak a bit more quietly
place? And then Tom says, but I was speaking more quietly than everyone else. Then the teacher says,
Tom, could you work a bit harder place? Then Tom says I'm working harder than everyone else.
Then the teacher says, Tom, could you write more carefully next time,
there are lots of mistakes. And Tom says, but I finished my work faster than everyone else.
Cool. So hopefully you have understood all of those comparative adverbs in those sentences. It
does require practice and if you need practice, you need to check out E2 English by going to
e2school.com or clicking in the description below. Okay, let's recap what we have learned.
So adverbs show how you speak. How do you speak? You speak quickly. Adverbs describe a verb,
whereas adjectives describe a noun. So you speak fast. And as an adjective, you're a fast
speaker. Comparative adverbs compare two actions. So I speak more quickly than Tom for example.
And finally, which one is correct, adverb and E R or the more adverb? Well, it depends.
It depends on whether the word actually can be used with more, like more fast is incorrect. It
also depends on clarity if you're being clear, and it also depends on formality as well. Okay,
so hopefully, after this lesson, you understand English and comparative adverbs
more clearly than everybody else. My name is Jay. I'll see you soon.