Lesson 8: Comparison of adjectives and adverbs - part 1 | 1 2

Adverbs

Comparatives

When we compare the way in which two things are carried out in English we often use the comparative form of an adverb. To do this we most commonly precede the adverb with 'more'.

For example:

Adverb	Comparative
beautifully	more beautifully

To form the comparative of most Latin adverbs, we use the accusative singular neuter of the comparative adjective and so the ending is often '-ius'.

For example:

Adjective	Comparative adjective		Adverb	Comparative adverb
pulcher	Masculine/Feminine Nom.pulchrior Acc.pulchriorem	Neuter pulchrius pulchrius	pulchre	pulchrius

Superlatives

When we compare the way in which more than two things are carried out in English we often use the superlative form of an adverb. To do this we precede it with 'most'.

For example:

Adverb	Superlative
beautifully	most beautifully

To form the superlative of most Latin adverbs we replace the ‘-us’ ending of the superlative adjective with '-e', so that the endings are most commonly '-issime', '-errime', '-illime' .

For example:

Superlative adjective	Superlative adverb
pulcherrimus	pulcherrime

Just as with adjectives, when it comes to translating Latin comparative and superlative adverbs, be aware that they are more flexible than those in English and can be expressed in a variety of different ways.

For example:

Adverb	Meaning
facile	easily
pulchre	beautifully
tuto	safely

Comparative adverb	Meaning
facilius	more easily, rather easily, too easily
pulchrius	more beautifully, rather beautifully, too beautifully
tutius	more safely, rather safely, too safely

Superlative adverb	Meaning
facillime	most easily, very easily, in an extremely easy way
pulcherrime	most beautifully, very beautifully, in an extremely beautiful way
tutissime	most safely, very safely, in an extremely safe way

Irregular adverbs

If an adjective is irregular, then it is often the case that the corresponding adverb will be irregular too. Compare these to the irregular adjectives we have already looked at in this lesson.

for example:

Adverbs	Meaning
paulum	a little
multum	much

Comparative	Meaning
minus	less
plus	more

Superlative	Meaning
minime	least
plurimum	most

Adverbs which are not linked to corresponding adjectives can also be irregular but you are not likely to come across these.