But lots of flat adverbs remain in common use.

A sign that bugs grammar geeks but keeps people safe is a good sign in my book.But after doing some research, I don’t believe the sign is incorrect either.Starting in the late 18th century, grammarians started insisting that adjectives be distinguished from adverbs in form (in order to make English conform more consistently to the rules of Latin), and flat adverbs were more consistently replaced by the -ly adverb form.But lots of flat adverbs remain in common use. I just bought my new lawn mower from Honda, and right on the on the box in big bold letters the words taunted me, “MOW SMART”. “Listen close” and “shining bright” have been appearing in published, edited works for hundreds of years. For example in the sentences ‘Take it easy’, ‘Tell me straight’, ‘Don’t drive so fast!’, and ‘Some people may think different’, ‘easy’, ‘straight, ‘fast’, and ‘different’ are flat adverbs. Join Macmillan Dictionary on Twitter and Facebook for daily word facts, quizzes and language news. But it’s difficult to open that magazine that can’t even punctuate nor use correct forms of adverbs. For example, in the sentence “The lonely wolf howled at the moon,” the adjective “lonely” modifies the noun “wolf.” So you can’t tell if words are adverbs or adjectives just by looking to see if they end in “-ly.” These two letters at the end of a word can be a clue, but you can’t rely on spelling. Then sitting on the conference table in my office the magazine titled “dig different“ (Lowercase to boot!) A handful of other short words have two competing adverb forms: bright/brightly, close/closely, easy/easily, hard/hardly, loud/loudly, right/rightly, tight/tightly are some examples.

In both cases, editors seem to prefer the -ly adverb these days, and you are free to prefer it as well. high Steven jumps high; Simple adverbs are adverbs that add “ly” to the end of an adjective to create and adverb. If you like a post, please take a second to click "like," and comment as often as you like.So, this sign is not only clever and memorable, but grammatically acceptable as well.Safe or Safely, Smart or Smartly? Examples of Flat Adverbs: hard They played hard. The parallel structure makes the sign’s message more noticeable and memorable, which would be a good trade-off, I think. What Are Flat Adverbs? Just don’t teach them that “close” and “bright” as adverbs is incorrect–just less preferable. The following examples show a diverse range of applications. Close and bright just don’t sound acceptable to me. Examples of Adverbs of Emphasis . Phwew. I’m in construction so topics like “digging differently” I certainly have an interest. Adverbs of emphasis have their place in just about every part of language and communication.
Adjectives that do not change form (add - ly) to become adverbs are called "flat adverbs." Oh, oh, old school age is showing.I don’t know if you are being harsh, but I wouldn’t advise being dogmatic about it.

Clearly, I needed to find a job.

It’s usually better to use stronger adverbs (or stronger adjectives and verbs) rather than relying on comparative and superlative adverbs. But wait, today I learned that those are just flat adverbs! Adjectives like fast,long, and soon , for example, are identical as adverbs ( fastly and soonly are not recognized words). https://www.merriam-webster.com/video/drive-safe-in-praise-of-flat-adverbs Now I can mow my lawn, and I have a new magazine to read.English is a truly hard language to learn. I was flat broke and the rent was due. "'He's tapping my phone,' he said to Celia indignantly. Adjectives like Well, thank you so much. And for me, as for an ESL student, it is always hard to select right word forms. One of the jobs of an adverb is to modify a verb action, for example:. Joe ran fast.

Typical flat adverbs are early, late, hard, fast, long, high, low, deep, near.

With a couple adverbs by your side, you can add further description, describe an action, or intensify the meaning of another word. Some people think that it is incorrect to use as adverbs forms such as ‘quick’ and ‘slow’ that also have a form ending in -ly. With certain “flat adverbs” (adverbs that look exactly the same as their adjective counterparts), the comparative and superlative forms look the same as the adjective comparative and superlative forms.

I couldn’t help noticing this sign during a recent visit to an amusement park:Being the grammar nerd that I am, I immediately wondered whether the use of Correct or not, I don’t take issue with the park’s sign-makers. ; If we want to compare one verb action with another, we can use a comparative adverb, for example:. Adverbs can mystify writers because they have a number of different functions within the English language.Reviewing examples of adverbs and adverb phrases can help you identify them and use this part of speech effectively. Examples of simple adverbs: strangely (strange + ly) quietly (quiet + ly) joyfully (joyful + ly) fast Michelle runs fast.

Joe ran fast, but Mary came first because she ran faster. By the way, I cannot accept the word “smartly”So—am I being unnecessarily harsh in telling my students that the sentence should read: “Listen closely!” or “The moon shone brightly.”? All About Flat Adverbs Comparative Adverbs.

I can sleep now! Examples: Flat adverbs .