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Good/well. Good is an adjective. The adverb is well. Your English is very good. You speak English well. Jane is a good vocalist. She sings well in the choir. We often use well with past participles (dressed/known and so on): well-dressed) not “good dressed”) well-known, well-educated.
But well is also an adjective with the meaning “in good health”: – How are you today? “I’m very well, thanks,” (not “I’m very good”).
Fast/hard/late: These words are both adjectives and adverbs. Adjective: Leroy is a very fast runner. Adverb: Leroy can run very fast. Leona is a hard worker. Leona works hard. (not works hardly). The bus was late. I got up late this morning. The adverb lately = recently.
Have you seen Musa lately? Hardly has a completely different meaning from hard: Hardly = almost not. Study these examples: Thabo asked Matildah to marry him. She was surprised because they had only known each other for less than a week.
She said: “We can’t get married now! We hardly know each other.” (We know each other very little; we almost don’t know each other) Why was Mandlenkosi so unfriendly at the party last night?
He hardly spoke to me = He spoke to me very little. We often use hardly with can/could. Your voice is too low. I can hardly hear it. (= I can hear it but only with a lot of difficulty. My ankle was hurting, I could hardly walk.
We use hardly with any/anyone/anything/anywhere. –How much money have you got? Hardly any. (=almost none, very little). I’ll have to go shopping. We have got hardly any food. (=almost no food, very little food). The examination results were very bad.
Hardly anyone passed. (= almost no one passed, very few students passed. She ate hardly anything because she didn’t feel hungry. (She ate almost nothing. She ate very little.
Note that you can say: She ate hardly anything or she hardly ate anything. We’ve hardly any food or we’ve hardly got any food. Hardly ever = almost never. – I’m nearly always at home in the evening. I hardly ever go out.
Comparison: Some adjectives and adverbs have irregular comparative forms: good/well better. Let me ask him. I know him better than you do. The garden looks better since you tidied up. Bad/badly worse. Is your toothache better? No, it’s worse. The situation was much worse than we expected.
Far – further I’m very tired. I can’t walk much further. (or farther) (or . . . much farther).
Further (but bit “farther” can also mean more or additional. Let me know immediately if you hear any further news. (= any more news). Note the comparative words more and less. I smoke more than I used to. We have got less time than I thought.
Older and elder: The comparative of old is older. Johnny looks older than he really is. We use elder when we are talking about members of a family. We say (my) elder brother/sister/son/daughter.
My elder brother is a doctor. We use elder only before a noun: My brother is older than me. (‘not elder than me’).
Sometimes you can use two comparatives together. For example: harder and harder, more and more, more and more difficult. We use this structure to say that something is changing continuously. It’s becoming harder and harder to find a job.
Your English is improving. It’s getting better and better. It’s becoming more and more difficult to find a job. These days more and more people are learning English.
Note the structure the + comparative the better. For example: – What time shall we leave? The sooner the better. (It will be best if we leave as soon as possible.) – What size box do you want? The bigger the better. (=it will be best if the box is as big as possible).
We also use the . . . with two comparatives to say that one thing depends on another thing: The warmer the weather, the better I feel. The earlier we leave, the sooner we will arrive. The more expensive the hotel, the better the service.
The more electricity you use, the higher your bill will be.
The more you have, the more you want.
Although/though/even though/in spite of/despite. Study this example situation: Last year Mpho and Nosizo spent their holidays by the sea. It rained a lot but they enjoyed themselves.
You can say: Although it rained a lot, they enjoyed themselves. (= It rained a lot but they . . .) in spite of the rain, they enjoyed themselves. Despite the rain, they enjoyed themselves. After although we use a subject + verb.
Although he smokes 20 cigarettes a day, he is quite fit. Although it rained a lot, we enjoyed our holiday. I didn’t get the job although I had all the necessary qualifications.
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