{"id":60,"date":"2007-10-07T23:09:09","date_gmt":"2007-10-07T23:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=60"},"modified":"2021-04-27T12:42:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T17:42:12","slug":"adjectives-and-adverbs-when-to-use-ly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/adjectives-adverbs\/adjectives-and-adverbs-when-to-use-ly\/","title":{"rendered":"Adjectives and Adverbs: When to Use <em>-ly<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you wonder when to add <em>-ly<\/em> to a word? For example, should you say, \u201cHe speaks slow\u201d or \u201cHe speaks slowly.\u201d Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Adjectives<\/strong> describe nouns and pronouns. They may come before the word they describe: \u201cThat is a cute puppy.\u201d Adjectives may also follow the word they describe: \u201cThat puppy is cute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Adverbs<\/strong> modify adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs. If an adverb answers how and can have an <em>-ly<\/em> attached to it, place it there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Examples:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>She thinks slow\/slowly.<\/em> <em>Slowly<\/em> answers how she thinks.<br \/>\n<em>We performed bad\/badly.<\/em> <em>Badly<\/em> answers how we performed.<br \/>\n<em>She thinks fast\/fastly.<\/em> <em>Fast<\/em> may be either an adjective or an adverb. In this example, <em>fast<\/em> answers how she thinks. There is no such word as <em>fastly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rule:<\/strong> When comparing, don\u2019t drop the <em>-ly<\/em>. Simply add <em>more<\/em> or <em>less<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Example:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>He speaks more slowly than his brother.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rule:<\/strong> English grammar has one tricky caveat that seems like an exception to these easy rules: If the verb is one of these four senses\u2014taste, smell, look, feel\u2014don\u2019t ask how. Instead, ask if the sense verb is used actively. If so, attach the <em>-ly<\/em>. If the sense verb is not used actively, which is more common, don\u2019t attach <em>-ly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Examples:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Roses smell sweet\/sweetly.<\/em> Do roses actively smell with noses? No, so no <em>-ly<\/em>.<br \/>\n<em>The woman looked angry\/angrily.<\/em> Is the woman actively looking with eyes? No, only her appearance is being described.<br \/>\n<em>She feels bad\/badly about the news.<\/em> She is not feeling with fingers so no <em>-ly<\/em>.<br \/>\n<em>She feels bad\/badly since burning her fingers.<\/em> She feels with her fingers here so the adverb (<em>-ly<\/em> form) is used.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. I feel bad\/badly about telling that secret.<br \/>\n2. Walk slower\/more slowly, please.<br \/>\n3. You look sad\/sadly about the news.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. I feel <strong>bad<\/strong> about telling that secret.<br \/>\n2. Walk <strong>more slowly<\/strong>, please.<br \/>\n3. You look <strong>sad<\/strong> about the news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you wonder when to add -ly to a word? For example, should you say, \u201cHe speaks slow\u201d or \u201cHe speaks slowly.\u201d Let\u2019s find out. Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They may come before the word they describe: \u201cThat is a cute puppy.\u201d Adjectives may also follow the word they describe: \u201cThat puppy is cute.\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives-adverbs","category-prefixes-and-suffixes"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}