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I read such a sentence from my error report

　WARNING: App 'org.gnome.Shell.desktop' respawning too quickly

The first time to notice explicitly that the adv adv grammar structure.

However, it might be awkward to say 'respawn extremely extremely quickly'.
Naturally to say very quickly or `too quickly'

Are there such limits in grammar that exclusively solely the special adv as "very and too" could be used before another adv ?

Where could consult the details of the adv adv grammar with?

Wizard
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  • Katy's answer is good, as for where you can find more information about it, there's another answer here https://ell.stackexchange.com/a/195550/87779 which may lead you to more information – Joshua Webb May 14 '19 at 09:34

1 Answers1

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No, it's not a grammar rule that you can't stack adverbs other than "too" or "very."

These are all grammatical sentences:

  • She spoke barely audibly.
  • He worked especially slowly.
  • The dog barked very rapidly.
  • The sky thundered rather formidably.
  • I saw them just recently.
  • She runs ridiculously quickly.
  • The guitarist plays amazingly well.

These sentences, where the adverbs are next to each other, but a comma stands in for the conjunction "and" are also grammatical:

  • The sun was blazingly, agonizingly hot.
  • The pot was symmetrically, colorfully painted.

As a matter of style, however, excessive adverb use is generally discouraged.

Katy
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  • Of course, you can have "excessive" adverb use without stacking adverbs, and you can stack adverbs in a way that is not excessive (e.g. your first example of "barely audibly" is fine because both words are essential to the meaning). – Kevin May 14 '19 at 04:07
  • @Kevin Oh, absolutely. That said, an anti-adverb stickler would probably recommend "she whispered" instead. – Katy May 14 '19 at 04:14
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    Excessive use is discouraged, whatever you are using. But only by those who don't like excesses. – kubanczyk May 14 '19 at 06:58