Comparative and superlative adverbs

Start with comparative forms

The comparative adverbs flashcards bring together forms such as better, earlier, faster and more slowly. Start there to become familiar with the words, then look at the example using better. You can think about how each form changes the meaning of an action.

The quiz on as...as and more...than comparisons provides sentences with gaps. Its examples include speaking English more fluently than before and smiling more happily than before. Work through the sentences after looking at the forms in the flashcards.

Use maps to see the patterns

The mind map Comparative and Superlative of Adverbs includes comparative, negative and superlative examples. It shows faster in a comparison between ways of traveling, less fast in a sentence about traffic, and the fastest in an example about an express train. These examples put the forms in context.

The Comparisons mind map covers as + adverb + as, including an example about speaking as well as someone else. The flowchart Comparing with adverbs also covers more or less + adverb + than and words that describe the size of a difference. Use these alongside the quiz to look back at a pattern when a sentence feels difficult.

Connect the examples

The mind map Comparative and superlative adverbs describes how short adverbs that do not end in -ly can take -er and -est. Comparing that explanation with examples such as faster and the fastest helps connect the forms to sentences.

This topic is a section of the Adverbs unit in English language. The resources on this page offer different ways to study comparisons within that unit: examples to read, forms to recall and sentences to complete. Choose a map and a quiz to use together.