Old English/Adverbs

Most adverbs form themselves from adjectives with one of three endings:

• -līce (from whence we get the -ly ending) (example: wundorlīce - wondrously)

• -e (example: wrāþe - fiercely)

• -unga (example: eallunga - entirely, completely)

Note that the dative and accusative of most words of time and length can be used as adverbs, e.g. hwīlum - sometimes, þrēo geardas - (for) three yards (as in: he ran for three yards and then stopped), and tū gearu - (for) two years.

Adverbs for their comparative (e.g. "better") and superlative (e.g. "best") degrees in the same way that adjectives do; that is, they usually take the -or ending for comparative and the -ost ending for the superlative. Here is an example:

• oft - oftor - oftost

There are some which are affected by i-mutation in the comparative and superlative degrees, these usually take no comparative ending:

• (long) lange - leng - lengest

There are also some which are irregular in the comparative and superlative degrees:

• (well) wel - betera - best

There are, of course, quite a few adverbs with endings other than these which are very common:

• nū - now
• þa/þā - then
• þær - there
• hider - hither
• þider - thither
• hēr - here
• heonan - hence
• sōna - soon/directly
• oft - often
• eft - back/again
• swā - so
• hwīlum - sometimes