Adverbs
Concept: Words Ending with 'ly'
Definition
- Adverbs are words added to give more information on the verb in a sentence.
- Words ending with the suffix ‘ly’ are adverbs of manner,which gives more information on the action performed.
- They usually are placed after the main verb or the object of a sentence.
- The easy way to transform an adjective into an adverb is by ending a word with 'ly'.
How to Form a Word with 'ly'?
Let us have a look at some of the common words that end with‘-ly’.
Common Words Ending with ‘-ly’ | ||
---|---|---|
rapidly | angrily | badly |
boldly | beautifully | correctly |
evenly | finally | gladly |
lovely | highly | loudly |
normally | perfectly | proudly |
sadly | sharply | shortly |
slowly | suddenly | thankfully |
wrongly | rightly | merrily |
Usage of words ending with ‘-ly’ in a sentence
Adverbs usually give more information about the verb in the sentence. These words can be found at the end of a sentence. There are times adverbs or ‘ly’ words can also be seen before a verb.
Examples:
- He shouted loudly.
- He listened silently.
- He bravely fought the war.
- The situation changed overnight rapidly.
- They both married eventually.
Common Mistakes
- Do not position the adverbs of manner within a sentence wrongly. The sentence will lose grammatical sense. They can’t be placed between a verb and its direct object.
- If there’s a preposition before the verb’s object, positionthe adverb of manner either before the preposition or after the object.
- Adverb of manner should be placed immediately after the verbs that have no object.
- They waited patiently until the evening.
- He walked swiftly to reach on time.
Examples:
He ate
quickly his breakfast.
He quickly ate
his breakfast.
He ate his
breakfast quickly.
They missed
unfortunately the flight.
They
unfortunately missed the flight.
They missed
the flight, unfortunately.
Examples:
It was kept
harshly on the floor.
It was kept
on the floor harshly.
Examples:
Exceptions
- When the adjective ends in ‘ic’, the syllable ‘al’ is generally added before the suffix ending in 'ly'.
- drastic – drastically
- specific – specifically
- scientific – scientifically
- dramatic – dramatically
- When the adjective ends in ‘le’followed by a consonant, the letter ‘e’ changes to ‘y’.
Examples:
- simple – simply
- gentle – gently
- terrible – terribly
- When the adjective ends in ‘le’ followed by a vowel, add ly to the adjective.
- For adjective that ends in ‘ll’, only the letter ‘y’is added.
- For adjectives that end with the letter‘ue’, just replace ‘e’ with –ly and omitted.
- When the adjective ends in ‘y’ followed by a consonant, the ‘y’ is changed to ‘i’ before placing the suffix –ly.
- happy – happily
- hungry – hungrily
- easy – easily
- There are certain words which end in ‘ly’that are mostly placed directly after the verb. They are bad, well, fast and hard.
- He did well in his exams.
- She slipped, and it hurt badly.
- He drove fast.
Examples:
Example:
sole - solely
Example:
full – fully
Example:
true – truly
Examples:
Examples: