0
Nokia88 Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

adjective or adverb ? - by N88 -

Dear Sir,

1. An adjective describes a noun

2. An adverb describes a verb; An adverb can also modify an adjective or another adverb.

The bank made a net loss of 950m Swiss francs (£440m; $700m) in the last three months of 2002, pushing into a full-year loss of 3.3bn francs.

But Credit Suisse still aims to return to profit as early as this year, and is cutting its dividend payout by 95%, and shedding up to 1,250 jobs, to stem outgoings.

The axe will fall the heaviest in its financial services division, which includes banking, wealth management and insurance operations.

The heaviest = adjective or adverb?

I can’t find the noun and the verb!

Your advice will be very much appreciated!
  

Top answer

Adverb: Fall heavily Fall heavier Fall heaviest

  • Adverb: Fall heavily Fall heavier Fall heaviest
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

10 Answers
0
.
Adverb:

Fall heavily
Fall heavier
Fall heaviest
0
Nokia88The axe will fall the heaviest in its financial services division, which includes banking, wealth management and insurance operations.

The heaviest = adjective or adverb?
An interesting point, Nokia! In som
0
Dear MM,

May I make an assumption here, are you saying:

Fall heaviest = verb + adjective (superlative)=adverb

And, it can also be written as:

Fall the heaviest ( when the is inserted in between Fall and Heaviest the phrase becomes adjective ) ?

I still don’t understand what is the rul
0
Dear Cool Breeze,

Rained = verb

Are you saying that the following examples:

(adjective phrase)

It rained heavily today. It rained even more heavily yesterday. It rained [the] most heavily last week.

Can be rephrased as:

(adverb phrase)

It rained heavily today. It rained even heavier yesterday. It rained the heaviest last week.
0
.


Fall heaviest = verb + adverb (superlative). The adverb has taken the adjective form because otherwise it becomes overly formal: The axe will fall the most heavily....

The plays no part in this explanation. It is optional here, as often holds with the superlative.
0
Dear MM,

I sincerely appreciate your great explanation (The answer probably can't be found elsewhere. Not to mention the Grammar books).

Some online dictionaries stated that the inflected forms of both the adjective and adverb of "heavy" are the same that confuse me.

0
Cool Breeze
Nokia88The axe will fall the heaviest in its financial services division, which includes banking, wealth management and insurance operations.

The heaviest = adjective or adverb?
An interesting point, Nokia! In some languages, including my mother tongue, both an adjective and an adverb could be us
0
Hi Nokia,

Personally, I think the sentence was structured rather strangely. Even in metahpor, We only picutre the axe falling quickly and should have no variation of speed or change in velocity.
<<The axe will fall the heaviest in its financial services division, which includes banking, wealth management and insurance operations. >>

Logic aside, If I
0
Thank you very much!

Best wishes, Nokia88
0
Heaviest = this is a superlative adjective because it uses the 'est' inflection, having changed the 'y' in heavy to an 'i' before we add the suffix (inflection). It shows how one noun was heavier than the rest (2 or more). NB 'heavier' is a comparative adjective which uses inflection (er) to show how one noun was heavier than one other.

Hope that helps

Related Questions