'ly' Adverbs & Adjectives | English Grammar Lesson | B1-Intermediate

Hello and welcome everyone to this lesson  where we're going to look at adverbs and  

adjectives ending in 'ly'. Okay, it's because of  a question that came from Dominque, and she asked:  

'Is friendly an adverb? Can we say he spoke to  me friendly?' So, obviously that's the question.  

We need to look at the word 'friendly'. Now,  there are two groups of words ending in 'ly'.  

Let's look at both groups. The first one is  obviously 'ly' adverbs. 'Ly' adverbs are always  

adverbs of manner that answer the question how,  and they come from an adjective. For example,  

if our adjective is 'clear' clear speech, the  adverb verb is 'clearly'. We just add 'ly' and  

now we have the adverb. So, a clear speech  but to speak a verb clearly. Or 'careless'  

is the adjective, a careless driver, but to drive  carelessly. Right, nice and simple! But of course,  

there are always exceptions. So, it's important to  know those. We're looking at the important ones.  

The common ones. And exception (the two main  exceptions), exception number one is that some  

adverbs of manner don't have 'ly', and I've  divided them into two groups. One very small  

group, that's where the adverb is completely  different from the adjective, and I could only  

think of one example. So, that's the adjective  'good', which becomes the adverb well. So,  

we don't have the word 'goodly'. We can't add  'ly'. It's good adjective a good plan, and 'well',  

well planned. Now, still staying with exception  one, so no 'ly', but a different situation and the  

situation is where the adverb and the adjective  are exactly the same. So again, we can't add 'ly',  

but the word doesn't change. It stays exactly the  same. I've got eight examples in this group for  

you. One is 'fast' as the adjective. A fast reply.  Also as the adverb: to reply fast. The next one,  

'late'. a late arrival (adverb). To arrive late  (adjective). 'Early'. An early departure. Same  

word for the adverb: to leave early. Next one is  'long', a long life. And the adverb is the same,  

'long', to live long. Let's look at the other four  that I've chosen for you. These are the common  

ones. 'Short' (adjective). A short break. 'Short'  (adverb): to cut short. 'Fine' is an adjective:  

a fine view means a nice view. And 'fine' as an  adverb: to see fine. Here it's more like 'well':  

to see well, to see okay. And the next one,  very important one, 'hard': a hard job,  

and also the adverb: hard, no 'ly', to work hard.  And the final one, 'straight': a straight line,  

and the adverb is the same, no 'ly': to walk  straight. Okay, so remember that you have to  

remember these. That's the only way. But very  importantly, there's a note here, and there are  

three of these adjectives: 'thought', 'late', and  'hard', that have adverbial form like 'hardly',  

'lately', and 'shortly', but the meaning is  completely different from the adjective. So,  

'shortly' means soon: I will write to him soon / I  will write to him shortly. 'Lately' means recently  

like: I haven't seen Jim recently / I haven't seen  him lately. And 'hardly', that's the probably the  

trickiest one, means almost not. So, if you hear  or say: I could hardly breathe, it means I almost  

couldn't breathe. So, it has a very specific  meaning this one. Okay, so that's important to  

remember. So now, we can look at exception two.  There are only three words I have chosen. Or the  

three common ones in this group, and that's where  your adverb of manner can be with or without 'ly'.  

And the three adjectives are 'quick', 'slow', and  'loud'. But, what's important to remember is that  

the form without the 'ly' is very informal  and mainly common in American English. So,  

for example the adjective 'quick': a quick meal,  the correct adverb form is 'quickly', and I would  

recommend you use that: to eat quickly. But don't  be surprised if you hear the word 'quick' used  

also as an adverb: eat quick. Very American. Same  with 'slow': a slow walk. But instead of saying  

walk slowly, which is the good form, sometimes  you will hear: to walk slow. And 'loud', that's  

also a very common one, where adverb and adjective  forms can be the same: a loud voice (adjective),  

and to to speak loudly, the best form, but  also very commonly: to speak loud. Alright,  

so we've looked at those adverbs. Just before we  look at adjectives with 'ly', one important note  

again and that's to do with the word 'real'. Now,  'real' has two meanings really. The real meaning,  

the real meaning of real is, 'true'. Real  meaning 'true', for example: a real Improvement.  

There, the only adverb form is 'really'. So: to  really improve. But, you know that we can also use  

'really' as a synonym for 'very' or 'completely',  and that's where it comes before another adverb or  

another adjective. And used in that way of  course again 'really' is the correct form,  

before an adverb or an adjective, but you could  also hear it without the 'ly'. So the correct  

form is really nice, but especially in American  English, you are likely to hear: oh real nice,  

that's real nice. So, just remember these little  exceptions. So that's about 'ly' adverbs. Let's  

look at 'ly' adjectives, and that's where things  can get confusing. So, there are a few adjectives  

that actually end in 'ly', and the common ones, we  have one group that are descriptive, for example  

'friendly', 'lovely', 'lonely', 'costly',  'orderly', 'deadly', 'lively', 'elderly',  

'cowardly'. These are all adjectives. They  describe something or someone. So, the adjective  

form ends in 'ly'. What do we do for the adverb?  Can we add another 'ly' and say: friendlyly?  

Doesn't sound right. It's phonetically awkward  to have two 'lys' : lyly. So in this case,  

and we can't use them directly as an adverb, we  have to create a phrase with them. So the it's not  

an adverb, but it's an it's a phrase that acts as  an adverb. And it would be with the words 'way',  

'fashion', and 'manner': in a friendly manner,  in an orderly fashion, in a lovely manner. Right,  

you have to create these phrases. So, a friendly  man, but to behave in a friendly way. Now,  

there's another group of adjectives that end  in 'ly', and they're related to a time period.  

You're very familiar with them like 'daily',  'weekly', 'fortnightly', 'monthly', 'quarterly',  

and 'yearly'. For this group, the adjective and  the adverb take the same form. So, 'weekly' is an  

adjective but also an adverb. We can have a weekly  meeting. Also, to meet weekly. Therefore, we come  

back to the question that Dominique asked: is  friendly an adverb? The answer is no. It is only  

an adjective. Can we say he spoke to me friendly?  No, because it's not an adverb. Remember that you  

have to create a phrase that replaces an adverb:  No, he spoke, or he spoke to me, in a friendly  

manner, or fashion, or way. Now, that answers  the question. But I wanted to go one step further  

to finish, and that is to also remind you of how  to create comparative and superlative adjectives  

with these 'ly' words. Looking at 'ly' adjectives  first, two cases. If your 'ly' adjective has two  

syllables, it always has at least two syllables,  then use 'er' and 'est'. So for example, for the  

adjective 'deadly', the comparative is 'deadlier  than, and superlative is 'the deadliest'. Because  

generally speaking, all two syllable adjectives  that end in 'y', the sound ee, take 'er' and  

'est'. For example happy = happier, than the  happiest. We never say: more happy or more deadly.  

Because they end in two syllables ending in the  sound ee. Or lucky = luckier than the luckiest.  

So, that's the case with two syllable adjectives.  Now if your 'ly' adjective is longer than two  

syllables, if it's multi- syllable, then of course  the rule stands and we need to use 'more' and  

'most'. So for example, if you have 'cowardly',  that's three syllables, then of course we use  

more and most: more cowardly than, and the most  cowardly. And of course, time-related adjectives,  

'weekly', 'fortnightly', etc. naturally don't  have comparative or superlative forms. Right,  

and to end then just looking at the comparative  and superlative forms of 'ly' adverbs,  

with the adverbs regardless of the number of  syllables, whether it's two, three, or more,  

always use 'more' and 'most'. So for example,  if the sorry I've written 'adjective' there it  

should be 'adverb'. If the adverb is 'clearly',  the comparative is always 'more clearly than'. So,  

'clearly' is just two syllables: clear-ly,  more clearly than and the most clearly. And  

'carelessly' is three syllables: care-less-ly and  of course then naturally we will use 'more' and  

'most': more carelessly than and the most  carelessly. Okay, I think that's the end  

of the presentation. I hope it has clarified or  given you some guidelines as to how to use 'ly'  

words, whether they're adverbs or adjectives  correctly. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.  

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