Collins Cobuild English Grammar (123 page)

Others are adverbs of place, such as
locally
and
internationally
, linking adverbs such as
consequently
, or sentence adverbs such as
actually
. For lists of adverbs of place, see the section beginning at paragraph
6.53
. For lists of sentence adverbs, see
Chapter 9
.

They live
locally
and they have never caused any bother.
These efforts have received little credit
internationally
.
They did not preach.
Consequently
, they reached a vastly wider audience.
There still remains something to say. Several things,
actually
.

adverb meaning

6.20
    Most adverbs formed by adding
-ly
to an adjective have a similar meaning to the adjective, for example
quietly
and
beautifully
have similar meanings to
quiet
and
beautiful
.

She is thoughtful,
quiet
and controlled.
‘I’m going to do it,’ I said
quietly
.
His costumes are
beautiful
, a big improvement on the previous ones.
The girls had dressed more
beautifully
than ever, for him.

6.21
    Some
-ly
adverbs have a different meaning from the meanings of their related adjectives. For example,
hardly
means
not very much
or
almost not at all
and is not used with any of the meanings of the adjective
hard
.

This has been a long
hard
day.
Her bedroom was so small she could
hardly
move in it.

Here is a list of adverbs ending in
-ly
that have a different meaning from the meanings of their related adjectives:

barely

hardly

lately

presently

scarcely

shortly

6.22
    Some
-ly
adverbs are not related to adjectives, for example
accordingly
. Some are related to nouns, for example
bodily
,
purposely
,
daily
and
weekly
. For lists of these, see the Reference Section.

6.23
    Adverbs ending in
-ly
are very rarely formed from some types of adjective:

most classifying adjectives, for example
racist
,
eastern
,
female
,
urban
,
foreign
, and
available
. See
Chapter 2
for lists of classifying adjectives.

most colour adjectives, although
-ly
adverbs from these are occasionally found in works of literature.

The hills rise
greenly
to the deep-blue sky.
He lay still, staring
blackly
up at the ceiling.

some very common qualitative adjectives that refer to basic qualities:

big

fat

old

small

tall

tiny

wet

young

adjectives that already end in
-ly
, for example
friendly
,
lively
,
cowardly
,
ugly
, and
silly
.

most adjectives that end in
-ed
, such as
frightened
and
surprised
. See the Reference Section for a list of the common ones that do form
-ly
adverbs, such as
excitedly
and
hurriedly
.

same form as adjective:
a fast car
,
drive fast

6.24
    In some cases, an adverb has the same form as an adjective and is similar in meaning. For example,
fast
is an adverb in the sentence
News travels fast
and an adjective in the sentence
She likes fast cars
.

…a
fast
rail link from London to the Channel Tunnel.
The driver was driving too
fast
for the conditions.

In these cases, the adverb is usually placed immediately after the verb or object, and rarely in front of the verb.

alike

downtown

extra

far

fast

inside

long

next

outside

overseas

past

straight

through

Some words ending in
-ly
are both adverbs and adjectives, for example
daily
,
monthly
, and
yearly
. These relate to frequency and are explained in paragraph
4.120
.

6.25
    Several postdeterminers, including
further
,
next
,
only
,
opposite
, and
same
, have the same form as adverbs but no direct relation in meaning. Note that
well
is an adverb and adjective, but usually means
not ill
as an adjective, and
with skill or success
as an adverb.

He has done
well
.

two forms:
dear/dearly
,
hard/hardly
, etc.

6.26
    Sometimes, two adverbs are related to the same adjective. One adverb has the same form as the adjective, and the other is formed by adding
-ly
.

He closed his eyes
tight
.
He closed his eyes
tightly
.
Failure may yet cost his country
dear
.
Holes in the road are a menace which costs this country
dearly
in lost man hours every year.
The German manufacturer was urging me to cut out the middle man and deal with him
direct
.
The trend in recent years has been to deal
directly
with the supplier.

Here is a list of common adverbs that have both these forms:

clear

clearly

close

closely

dear

dearly

deep

deeply

direct

directly