Thematic Vocabulary
Adverbs and Comparisons
There is one irregular adverb that is troublesome in both languages. The adverb form of “good” is “well,” which is irregular in English. Not only is the adverb “well” formed irregularly, the adjective form “good” is often used incorrectly to modify verbs. To describe a noun or a pronoun, you must use the adjective “good.” To describe a verb, you must use the adverb “well.”
For example, “The book is good” uses the adjective “good” to modify the noun “book.” In “The author writes well,” the adverb “well” modifies the verb “writes.” It is common to hear the incorrect sentence, “he writes good.” The exact same problem occurs in Spanish. The word bueno is the equivalent to the English adjective “good.” The adverb form of bueno is irregular, also. The adverb bien is the equivalent to the English adverb “well.”
A similar phenomenon occurs with the adjective malo (bad) and the adverb mal (badly). It is somewhat easier to remember that malo is the adjective form because it ends in - o, so you would have to determine the gender of the noun it modifies to use the right form of the adjective. If you can't find a noun and realize that malo modifies a verb, you must use the adverb mal instead.
In the following examples, notice that mejor (better) and peor (worse) are extremely unusual. The same word can be used as an adjective or adverb, but does not change endings when used as an adverb.
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Adverb: Jaime y Carmen bailan mejor. (Jaime and Carmen dance better.)
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Adjective: Jaime y Carmen sonmejores. (Jaime and Carmen are better.)
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Adverb: Susana y Consuela cocinan peor. (Susana and Consuela cook worse.)
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Adjective: Las comidas son peores. (The meals are worse.)
