Can you speak slower

Active 3 years, 1 month ago. Viewed 47k times. But in daily life I have not heard anyone saying " Speak slowlier ". I think I heard folks saying "Speak slower" but I also think it is incorrect. Which is the best or correct form to convey the message? Could that be the longish " Speak more slowly? Improve this question. Adjectives are easy. OK, It's not a duplicate. Show 5 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Barrie England Barrie England k 10 10 gold badges silver badges bronze badges.

Your answer seems to be the most authoritative thus far it actually brings citations. You can't. I don't know the grammatical rules for when you can use flat adverbs like slow , and I believe they're different in the U. Peter Shor: I don't know either, but it may be that when 'slow' is an adverb it more frequently comes after the verb rather than before it, whereas 'slowly' can be in either position.

Show 2 more comments. Slower can either be an adjective, or an adverb. American Luke American Luke 2, 2 2 gold badges 23 23 silver badges 36 36 bronze badges.

Albeit extremely uncommon. I have never heard it in spoken or written speech, and Barrie himself says the OED has only two citations for it, which are archaic.

Search Advanced search…. Members Current visitors. Interface Language. Log in. Install the app. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Thread starter Student-of-English Start date Nov 11, Student-of-English Senior Member Malaga. Hello Which is the right one, Could you speak slower or could you speak more slowly?

Thank you in advance. Both are perfectly acceptable. This is one of the few situations when both sound fine. I would probably prefer "more slowly". The correct one is "Could you speak more slowly?

Students: We have free audio pronunciation exercises. You will always find reliable answers here from experts, such as the gentleman who posted the first answer. We non-experts are allowed to reply if we try to give reasonable answers. I believe that there is a difference, but -- of course -- I may be mistaken.

There were two trains. I could get a ticket only on the slower one. Technically speaking, slowly is an adverb. I speak slowly; Tom speaks more slowly than I; Martha speaks the most slowly of us three. In everyday conversation, people do not want to take the time that is necessary to say: Would you speak more slowly , please? So they just say: Would you speak slower , please?