Adverbs ending in -ly
Adverbs have a strong connection with adjectives. Adjectives and adverbs are usually based on the same word. Adverbs often have the form of an adjective + -ly.
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Adverbs ending in-lyare usually adverbs of manner (slowly) and degree (completely, fairly).
Adverbs formed from adjectives ending in-lhave doublel:
beautiful → beautifully, careful → carefully, hopeful → hopefully, historical → historically
Magda lookedhopefullyat her mother.
Historically, there was never any conflict between the two communities.
Adverbs formed from adjectives ending in-ychange theytoi:
easy → easily, busy → busily, lucky → luckily, angry → angrily
Luckily, I had a backup copy of the data on a disk.
I’ve never seen him react soangrily.
Adverbs ending in a consonant+ekeep thee:
definite → definitely, fortunate → fortunately, extreme → extremely, absolute → absolutely
I amextremelygrateful to you.
We wereabsolutelyexhausted at the end of it all.
Adverbs ending in -ward(s)or -wise
There is a small group of adverbs which end in -ward(s) or -wise. The -ward(s) words can end in either -wardor -wards(inward, inwards).
-wards:inwards, eastwards, upwards, downwards
-wise:clockwise, lengthwise, likewise
The doctor asked her to move her headupwardsbut she couldn’t.
Turn the handleclockwiseto start it.
He’s the one that they all love. Whatever he does, they dolikewise.(They do the same thing.)
Adverbs with the same form as adjectives
Some adverbs have the same form as adjectives. The most common are:fast(notfastly),left, hard, outside, right, straight, late, well, and time words such asdaily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
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Don’t confuse adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives modify nouns or are used after verbs such asbe, become, seem, look, smell, taste.
She walks veryelegantly.(adverb of manner, describing how she walks)
He wore anelegantsuit and a silk tie.(adjective describing the suit)
She looks veryelegantin that long skirt.(adjective afterlook)
Adjectives ending in -ly
Some adjectives end in-ly, e.g.lively, lonely, ugly. We don’t form adverbs from these adjectives because they are not easy to pronounce. We usually reword what we want to say instead.
Don’t actin a silly way.
Not:Don’t act sillily.
She said itin a friendly way.
Not:She said it friendlily.
Adverbs not related to adjectives
Some adverbs (e.g.just, quite, so, soon, too, very) are not directly related to adjectives:
This isjustwhat I am looking for.(just= exactly)
These cups are notquitethe same.(not quite= not exactly)
Why is this roadsonarrow?
I look forward to seeing yousoon.
That’stooexpensive.
That’s averystrange story.
Gradable adverbs
Most adverbs, like most adjectives, are gradable (they can express different degrees of qualities, properties, states, conditions and relations). We can modify adverbs using other types of adverbs and comparative forms to make longer adverb phrases.
| reallyis a degree adverb |
| moreis a degree adverb more skilfullyis a comparative form |