Adverbs

What Do Adverbs Modify?

An adverb is a word that modifies (describes) a verb (he sings loudly), an adjective (very tall), another adverb (ended too quickly), or even a whole sentence (Fortunately, I had brought an umbrella). Adverbs often end in -ly, but some (such as fast) look exactly the same as their adjective counterparts.

Tom Longboat did not run badly.

Tom is very tall.

The race finished too quickly.

Fortunately, Lucy recorded Tom’s win.

It’s easy to identify adverbs in these sentences.

Adverbs and Verbs

One of the things adverbs do is modify verbs. This means that they describe the way an action is happening.

Phillip sings loudly in the shower.

My cat waits impatiently for his food.

I will seriously consider your suggestion.

The adverbs in each of the sentences above answer the question in what manner? How does Phillip sing? Loudly. How does my cat wait? impatiently. How will I consider your suggestion? Seriously. Adverbs can answer other types of questions about how an action was performed. They can also tell you when (We arrived early) and where (Turn here).

That cake looks good.

My elderly neighbor looks well.

These two descriptive words are a little more difficult to identify as adverbs. Even though good is usually an adjective, it’s modifying the look of the cake (How does the cake look? It looks good.) so it’s an adverb. We can’t answer the question “what is the cake” because we haven’t tasted it yet, so we don’t know if it’s good cake or bad cake. Well in the second example is tricky because it’s one of the adverbs that doesn’t follow the typical adverb -ly spelling.

Most of the time, it’s pretty straightforward. However, there is one type of verb that doesn’t mix well with adverbs. Linking verbs, such as feel, smell, sound, seem, and appear, typically need adjectives, not adverbs. A very common example of this type of mixup is

I feel badly about what happened.

Because “feel” is a verb, it seems to call for an adverb rather than an adjective. But “feel” isn’t just any verb; it’s a linking verb. An adverb would describe how you perform the action of feeling—an adjective describes what you feel. “I feel badly” means that you are bad at feeling things. If you’re trying to read Braille through thick leather gloves, then it might make sense for you to say “I feel badly.” But if you’re trying to say that you are experiencing negative emotions, “I feel bad” is the phrase you want.

Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs can also modify adjectives and other adverbs. Often, the purpose of the adverb is to add a degree of intensity to the adjective.

The woman is quite pretty.

This book is more interesting than the last one.

The weather report is almost always right.

The adverb almost is modifying the adverb always, and they’re both modifying right.

“Is my singing too loud?” asked Phillip.

My cat is incredibly happy to have his dinner.

We will be slightly late to the meeting.

This bridesmaid dress is a very unflattering shade of puce.

Adverbs and Other Adverbs

You can use an adverb to describe another adverb. In fact, if you wanted to, you could use several.

Phillip sings rather enormously too loudly.

The problem is that it often produces weak and clunky sentences like the one above, so be careful not to overdo it.

Adverbs and Sentences

Some adverbs can modify entire sentences—unsurprisingly, these are called sentence adverbs. Common ones include generally, fortunately, interestingly, and accordingly. Sentence adverbs don’t describe one particular thing in the sentence—instead, they describe a general feeling about all of the information in the sentence.

Fortunately, we got there in time.

Interestingly, no one at the auction seemed interested in bidding on the antique spoon collection.

At one time, the use of the word hopefully as a sentence adverb (e.g., Hopefully, I’ll get this job) was condemned. People continued to use it though, and many style guides and dictionaries now accept it. There are still plenty of readers out there who hate it though, so it’s a good idea to avoid using it in formal writing.

Degrees of Comparison

Like adjectives, adverbs can show degrees of comparison, although it’s slightly less common to use them this way. 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. It’s usually better to use stronger adverbs (or stronger adjectives and verbs) rather than relying on comparative and superlative adverbs.

An absolute adverb describes something in its own right:

He smiled warmly A hastily written note

To make the comparative form of an adverb that ends in -ly, add the word more:

He smiled more warmly than the others. The more hastily written note contained the clue.

To make the superlative form of an adverb that ends in -ly, add the word most:

He smiled most warmly of them all. The most hastily written note on the desk was overlooked.

Placement of Adverbs

Place adverbs as close as possible to the words they are supposed to modify. Putting the adverb in the wrong spot can produce an awkward sentence at best and completely change the meaning at worst. Be especially careful about the word only, which is one of the most often misplaced modifiers. Consider the difference between these two sentences:

Phillip only fed the cat. Phillip fed only the cat.

The first sentence means that all Phillip did was feed the cat. He didn’t pet the cat or pick it up or anything else. The second sentence means that Phillip fed the cat, but he didn’t feed the dog, the bird, or anyone else who might have been around.

When an adverb is modifying a verb phrase, the most natural place for the adverb is usually the middle of the phrase.

We are quickly approaching the deadline.

Phillip has always loved singing.

I will happily assist you.

When to Avoid Adverbs

Ernest Hemingway is often held up as an example of a great writer who detested adverbs and advised other writers to avoid them. In reality, it’s impossible to avoid adverbs altogether. Sometimes we need them, and all writers (even Hemingway) use them occasionally. The trick is to avoid unnecessary adverbs. When your verb or adjective doesn’t seem powerful or precise enough, instead of reaching for an adverb to add more color, try reaching for a stronger verb or adjective instead. Most of the time, you’ll come up with a better word and your writing will be stronger for it.

The State of Writing 2016

The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written. — Joyce Carol Oates

With 2016 coming to a close, Grammarly’s team of writing analysts took a look at the biggest trends in writing in English this year. And we found some fascinating results! Below are the grammar and writing trends that dominated 2016, as well as our predictions for the next year in written English.

First, we looked at where we write, and found that this has changed significantly over time! We wouldn’t have all these newfangled typing machines without a long history of making English writing faster, easier, and more efficient.

Don’t remember when the printing press was invented? Check out this blog on how we’ve written since writing became a thing.

From Pens to Keys—The Complete History of Writing Tools

Our team also looked at some “trendy” words in 2016, and related them back to linguistic traditions. Old linguistic traditions.

Don’t know why “verbing” is such a big deal, or why “tweens” are their own age group? Check out this blog on how old words are being used in new ways.

New Uses for Old Words

2016 was a rich year for the growth of writing online. The best part? Our users wrote more in 2016 than ever before! If you’d like to find out more about the best times and places write, check out this blog on writing productivity.

10 Habits Today’s Writers Share

In 2016, Grammarly checked more than 31 billion words! As we analyzed various types of writing, we found that a few different trends emerged. Check out this blog to find out which grammar mistakes ruled the year, based on our user data.

Here Are the Top 10 Grammar Mistakes of 2016

Although we saw millions of very real grammar errors, we also noticed that some grammar rules may be going out of style. Check out this blog if you want to know which rules are in danger of extinction, based on data from our users.

Which Grammar Rules Are Dying?

We also recognized that writing as a profession changed in the last year, with the ever-increasing consumption of content and the difficulty of making a living creating it. Here are some of the trends we observed in the professional writing space.

Writers on the State of Professional Writing

Slang and text speak usage continues to rise with the popularity of messaging apps on more devices, in more places. Whether grammar pedants like it or not, it appears that slang is here to stay, so we have outlined some of the most popular slang words of the year.

Here Are the Top 10 Slang Words of 2016

Want to know which trends will dominate online writing in 2017? We have three ideas about how English writing will grow and change in the next year. (Don’t panic, grammar pedants!)

3 Trends That Will Dominate English Writing in 2017

What’s the Difference Between Grammar Correction and Grammar Trolling?

Prescriptive English grammar seems to be one of those things that either impassions you or inspires some level of dread. Lovers of English grammar and usage are energized by mastering the rules of a messy and disorganized language. For the rest of us, our feelings run the gamut from indifference to loathing as we muddle through a seemingly arbitrary organizational system and apply it to something as individual as language. There’s pride. There’s resentment. There’s a lot in between.

Most of us live in the “in between.” We understand that following traditional grammar and usage rules helps us succeed at work and in our communities. It makes us better communicators. We do our best to write and speak well and to help our friends and loved ones do the same. It would be great if we could leave it as that—just a bunch of well-meaning people trying their best. Unfortunately, there is an ugly side to this pursuit of grammatical correctness.

Some people take it upon themselves to “police” grammar online or at work. When they use restraint and tact, these people can positively contribute to their communities. Sadly, many people miss the mark and consider “foolish” grammar mistakes justification for making others feel bad. These are grammar trolls. They are language bullies. And as well meaning as they think their efforts are, all us in-betweeners (56 percent) pretty much agree that peer grammar correction is not such a good idea. Language bullying destroys trust, hurts communities, and is just plain mean. (#StopGrammarTrolls)

Understanding Who Grammar Trolls Are

It’s likely that you know one or two people who infuriate others with their pedantic and vocal approach to grammar. It’s possible that you’re worried you might be a grammar troll. (Here’s a hint: if you have ever wished you had an app for correcting people’s texts, you are probably a grammar troll.) Language bullies are everywhere and come in all shapes and sizes, but they’re easy to spot because these trolls have some typical characteristics.

• Hyper-corrects self and others
• Focuses on relatively minor grammar and writing mistakes (e.g., typos)
• Makes broad statements and exhibits black-and-white thinking
• Insults, mocks, or shames others over writing mistakes

If we break each one of these down, you’ll get a clearer picture:

First, grammar trolls have a (compulsive?) need to correct grammar and other linguistic mistakes. This alone makes them scientifically proven jerks. This perfectionism can stem from a general need for control or from a desire to impose control on one sphere of influence when other areas are perceived as chaotic.

Trolls also tend to call out minor language errors as a front for a lack of deeper understanding. They rely on typos, missing words, and stale grammar myths (e.g., never end a sentence with a preposition) to prop up their “contributions.”

Trolls have a flair for generalizations and overstatement, particularly of their own opinions about grammar or writing—it’s all or nothing with them.

Finally—and this shouldn’t be a surprise—language bullies lack empathy for other writers. They often assume that all writers have had the same experiences with language that they have had and, therefore, have “no excuse” not to “know better.” It seems lost on trolls that while it’s easier now than ever to improve your grammar, we’re still not all starting at the same place. Nor do we necessarily want everyone to follow the rules all the time.

Drawing the Line Between Trolling and Helping

As a language lover, you might look at that list and think, “Geez, this looks familiar.” There is a fine line between a language troll and a helpful grammarian, which is why we’ve made the case before that you shouldn’t ever correct others’ grammar. However, there are some differences that deserve attention.

The critical differentiator is motivation. Trolls and bullies correct people for their own gratification—to vent anger, to feel superior, to connect with others, etc. Grammar samaritans offer advice and corrections for others’ benefit—to notify the small business that tweeted a typo or to help that co-worker who keeps using “their” incorrectly in company memos. If you’re not sure which bucket you fall into, ask yourself this: Why are you correcting this person’s or group’s grammar? Think seriously about this one. If you’re doing it for any other reason besides helping that person or group, you’re bullying. If you’re so sure that you’re doing it to be helpful, ask yourself this final telling question: how are you going to correct them? If you considered anything other than a tactful private message or conversation, you’re probably bullying.

Why are you correcting this person’s or group’s grammar? Think seriously about this one. If you’re doing it for any other reason besides helping that person or group, you’re bullying.

To be clear, bullying

• Is for the troll’s gratification
• Focuses on petty errors
• Destroys trust within the community or group and creates an us-vs.-them dynamic
• Often degrades others
• Is often public

While helpful correction

• Is for others’ benefit
• Deals with substantial errors or small errors that have a strong, cumulative influence
• Creates trust within the community or group and is inclusive
• Is tactful and considerate
• Stays private

Grammar trolls are pedants whose love of language and being correct trumps their love of community and people. Grammar samaritans are those who use their passion and love to build community and trust. For the majority of us on the fence about grammar, we can all come together around our frustration with language trolls. When it comes to helping with grammar and language bullying, there is no in between. You’re helpful or you’re not.

What is your experience with grammar trolls? Let us know on social media with #nogrammartrolls.

How Gaming Can Up-Level Your Communication at Work

The guild’s next raid will be a daring one: your small company is barely a month away from unveiling its new product. Everyone in your party will need to understand the plan and play their part in this perilous adventure.

Andrea, a level-thirty design mage, is worried there might be hidden traps en route to the treasure. Ben and Eduardo, both seasoned software paladins, are not certain the team can crank out enough rapid-fire damage to finish off the nefarious code lich in time. Elissa, a neophyte copy elf, is too nervous to admit she’s puzzled by the arcane machine in the breakroom that the team relies on for elixirs—er, coffee. I hope the team cleric casts a pizza buff soon, she tells no one. I’m sick of listening to the compliance shaman drone on.

One thing that will help this crew—and yours, too—is communication. No one player can carry the team alone; knowing what the others are working on, why, and how their respective efforts all fit into a shared goal is essential to unlocking high-level achievements.

Luckily, this doesn’t have to be a total chore: hard-won lessons in collaboration from gaming also apply in team situations at work.

Take turns and ask for pointers

Work communications, like many games, are often asynchronous—you send an email and then wait for a reply, you make your move and then watch to see what the next player does, etc.

One way to think about this is like a friendly game of chess with a workmate at the office. Let’s say it’s untimed, so the match might unspool over the course of a week. A few times each day, you walk by the board and see your colleague has slid a note to your side of the table that says “your move.” You study your options and make a decision, then slide the note back across.

The key difference between this game of chess and your ongoing email thread with Randy from engineering is this: you and Randy are working toward the same objective—a successful product launch next month. So instead of trying to outfox him with a crafty discovered check, you can simply ask Randy for input on your next move, e.g., “Hey, what’s the range of outputs for this field we’re adding? I need to draft descriptions ahead of Thursday’s meeting.”

Soliciting pointers from other players can be a boon, since eliminating guesswork improves the team’s efficiency—and also because working and playing alongside people with different skills and experience is a great way to step up your game.

Establish, listen, and expound

This collaborative spirit also applies in games with more players and quicker turns, just as it might in a meeting where you and several colleagues are trying to puzzle through a series of design hurdles.

Consider a cooperative game like Pandemic, where players take on such roles as medic, researcher, and operations expert in a race to halt the spread of disease around the globe. In Pandemic, it’s often helpful to devise a plan by working backward from where you’re trying to end up; each player often knows their next move well before their turn. So the scientist can work to discover a cure for the disease while the medic battles to stem its spread, and so on.

Sometimes it’s helpful to start by establishing what’s known—what challenges your team has to surmount, for instance, along with limitations (deadlines at the office, turn order around the table, etc). Here, it pays not only to be a thoughtful listener but also to show others you’re hearing them. It’s not a point you have to belabor, but building on what’s already been said before adding fresh ideas can be a way to steer the conversation forward, toward a collaborative solution.

It’s also worth remembering that players who aren’t eager talkers often still have worthwhile ideas—so when you can, make sure they have room to open up.

Be direct, keep calm, and minimize chatter

In some games, there is no waiting—everyone is actively playing all the time. Think of a game like Pit, which emulates bidding and trading for commodities in a crowded exchange: this tends to involve a lot of yelling, as well as trying to mentally filter which shouts you need to hear so you know who to transact with next.

That approach might sound fun for a little while, but it quickly gets unwieldy around the office—or while your team is in the midst of a complex assault, like that aforementioned raid.

In such circumstances, as with a heads-down deadline push at work, it’s key to impart lots of information with minimal chatter. For instance, players in games like Destiny use detailed callouts—the shorter, the better—in order to apprise their teammates of foes’ locations on a given map.

Here, as in the office, word economy is essential: be direct. Just as it helps to be succinct and not snippy with your teammates, so too must you find a balance with your colleagues, being assertive but not overbearing. The goal is to aid coordination—to make sure the design mage’s spells afford the team plenty of breathing room as the code paladins hack away.

Honing these techniques can help ensure your team doesn’t end up blindsided and on tilt in the midst of your next project. If this all takes some practice, that’s okay—every day with your team is another chance to grind more experience points!

Writers, Get Ready for NaNoWriMo!

Every November, wordsmiths around the globe take on the ultimate writing challenge—to crank out a 50,000-word novel in just thirty days. The event is called NaNoWriMo (an acronym for National Novel Writing Month), and last year it drew 431,626 participants. Although the format is meant to encourage quick, seat-of-your-pants writing, the words writers churn out during the annual event aren’t necessarily for naught. So far, over 250 NaNoWriMo novels, including Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, have been published by traditional book publishers.

It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this!

Are you planning to write a novel in November? Although NaNoWriMo challenges writers to write hard and fast without stopping to edit or check grammar, that doesn’t mean you have to set out unprepared. The Grammarly team thought it would be fun to arm you with some writing tips and words of encouragement so you’ll be well prepared for your adventure. During the month of October, we’ll share a series of writing advice articles to get you geared up and ready to tell your tale.

NaNoWriMo Prep: Week 1

How do you get ideas for a story? Cultivate curiosity!

It’s possible that you’re thinking about writing a novel in November and you still haven’t decided what to write about. Now is the perfect time to start planting the seeds of ideas and seeing what will take root. But how do you find those idea seeds? By cultivating curiosity.

Every child’s curiosity has gotten her into trouble at one point or another. It starts by thinking: what would happen if I did X? What would happen if I touched that hot stovetop? What would happen if I set my goldfish free? What would happen if I jumped from the top of the stairs? Would I fly? Fortunately, with age comes common sense—we stop burning our fingers, sending our goldfish to the sewers, and fracturing our tibias trying to feed our curiosity. Unfortunately, those painful lessons—not to mention nagging parents and teachers—cause us not only to stop trying to answer silly questions but to stop asking them in the first place.

This month, start asking silly questions again. (Don’t jump! Answer that “would I fly” question in writing, please.) No one writes well in a vacuum, so challenge yourself to get out and observe humans in their natural (and unnatural) habitats. Go to a park, a concert, a political rally, anywhere you can people-watch, and then start asking questions. That sad-looking man in a business suit sitting on the park bench with a newspaper in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other—what’s his story? Why does he look so sad? Has he suffered a loss? What kind of loss? Was it his job? His wife? Millions of dollars in the stock market? What’s in the brown paper bag? Is it something that will complicate things for him? What would happen if he slept on the park bench tonight?

While you’re out on your field trip, carry a small notebook so you can write down what you observe and ask all the silly questions you want. Note the sounds you hear, the smells, the sights. But most of all, notice people and start asking yourself what their stories might be and what would happen if . . . You don’t have to have real answers—create them!

Be “curioser and curioser.”

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). ―Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Now that you’ve got notes, it’s time to think about whose story you might want to tell. While you were out, which people intrigued you and made you ask the most questions? Make up names for them. Make up pasts. Make up character profiles (here’s a fun worksheet) about their likes and dislikes, their bad habits, and their biggest flaws—the things that will really get them into trouble. All fiction evolves from getting characters into trouble and then testing those characters as they work their way through it to come out on the other side a changed person. (More on this in a future article.)

Does one of the characters you invented stand out and make you eager to learn more? Does one of them keep popping up in your daydreams or keep you lying awake long after you should be asleep? That’s the one you want to write 50,000 words about come November. Let him or her rattle around in your head for a while and become real.

The Dark Side of Mother Goose

Murder, torture, mass death by plague…not exactly the stuff of children’s literature, right? Actually, if you read the rhymes of Mother Goose, it is. Most people don’t realize the macabre history of these innocuous-sounding rhymes, but dig beneath the surface, and you’ll find Mother Goose poetry is chock-full of gruesome imagery.

In fact, many of today’s nursery rhymes are sanitized versions of the grim originals. Back in the 1950s, a group of concerned citizens rallied to clean them up lest they terrify little children, a crusade similar to one today’s parents wage against violent video games.

If you doubt the dark side of good Mother Goose, check out the stories behind these rhymes.

Ring Around the Rosie

Children love to hold hands and chant this little rhyme, falling to the ground in a fit of giggles at the phrase, “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!” What could be better than a ring of roses and a pocket full of posies? Actually, this rhyme reputedly refers to the bubonic plague that wiped out 20 percent of the population of London in less than a year. Ring of roses? The ugly rash that heralds the disease. Pocket full of posies? To disguise the smell of sickness. Ashes, ashes? Cremated bodies. Not such a cheery children’s rhyme after all.

Three Blind Mice

This cute little ditty seems bland enough, other than the somewhat disturbing imagery of a knife-wielding farmer’s wife hacking off a few rodent tails. In truth, this rhyme is about the bloody reign of England’s Queen Mary I, the fierce Catholic who spent much of her time on the throne executing Protestants. The three mice in this rhyme refer to Nicholas Ridley the Bishop of London, Hugh Latimer, and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who were burned at the stake for heresy. The blindness is a device referring to their refusal to see Catholicism as the true faith.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

What could be more innocuous than a little agricultural advice? This sweet rhyme conjures up a garden full of blooms tended by smiling maidens surrounded by tinkling bells and cockle shells. In truth, however, this is another tribute to Bloody Mary and her murdering methods. Silver bells and cockle shells were medieval torture devices, and the garden is a metaphor for the fast-growing graveyards that accompanied her reign.

Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill

Reading this rhyme brings to mind a pair of laughing children merrily filling their buckets at the well and suffering a small slip as they skip down the hill. Actually, most theorists believe this rhyme is a reference to France’s King Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette, who were found guilty of treason and publicly beheaded by the guillotine.

London Bridge is Falling Down

On the surface, this utterly harmless little rhyme seems to be just another story set to a tune and turned into a playground game for children. The rhyme refers to the famous bridge of stone built by Henry II in the 1100s; no one is certain of the identity of “my fair lady.” However, the second verse is where things get gruesome. The line “Set a man to watch all night” refers to the practice of embedding living human beings into bridges and foundational walls to act as a guardian spirit. In the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, three bridges are cited where the bodies of adults or children were found embedded in the walls. For the record, there’s no evidence any human beings were used to build the London Bridge.

So you see, old Mother Goose wasn’t exactly the benign feathered scribe depicted in children’s books. There’s a sinister streak in her collection of kiddie poems.