6.20 adverb meaning

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.

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'.

6.23

Adverbs in '-ly' are very rarely formed from some types of adjectives:

* most classifying adjectives, for example 'racist', 'eastern', 'female', 'urban', 'foreign', and 'available'.

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

• His face appeared, lit redly.
• He lay still, staring blackly up at the ceiling.

* some very common qualitative adjectives which refer to basic qualities: , big, fat, old, small, tall, tiny, wet, young

* adjectives which already end in '-ly', for example 'friendly', 'lively', 'cowardly', 'ugly', 'silly'.

* most adjectives that end in '-ed', such as 'frightened' and 'surprised'.