Last week, I mentioned the concept of flat adverbs when we were talking about the word “funnest,” so today, we’ll dig in a little more.

Are we allowed to “drive slow” instead of “slowly”? May we “jump high” or “sit up straight”? What about the websites and cookbooks with the title “Eat fresh”? Yes, today is adverb day, with a sprinkling of adjectives.

What are adjectives and adverbs?

First, an adjective modifies a noun or pronoun. For example, in the sentence “That is a real diamond,” “real” is an adjective that modifies the noun “diamond.” Other examples of adjectives are “devious” and “fair.”

• Squiggly eyed the chocolate with a devious smile.
• Aardvark reminded Squiggly of his promise to eat only his fair share.

An adverb, on the other hand, modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs often have an “-ly” at the end, as in “happily” and “heartily.”

• Squiggly happily posed for the cameras.
• Aardvark heartily hoped he would get a turn in the limelight.

Such adverbs are usually formed by adding “-ly” to the end of an adjective, as we just did with the adjectives “happy” and “hearty.”

Do all adverbs end in ‘-ly’?

Other adverbs, however, such as “very,” don’t fit this pattern. You might complain, for example, “Squiggly eats very noisily.” In that sentence, the adverb “very” modifies another adverb, “noisily.”

To confuse matters, adjectives can also end in “-ly.” For example, in the sentence “The lonely snail stared up at the moon,” the adjective “lonely” modifies the noun “snail.” Poor Squiggly.

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.

What are flat adverbs?

You must have heard the joke “Working hard? Or hardly working?” Both versions—“hard” and “hardly”—are adverbs. “Hardly” is one of those regular “-ly” adverbs. “Hard” is what’s called a flat adverb, which according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Modern Usage is “an adverb that has the same form as its related adjective” (1). Examples include the word “fast” in “Drive fast!” and “bright” in “The moon is shining bright” (2).

Merriam-Webster notes that grammarians have been arguing about this kind of adverb for at least a couple of centuries and shares the interesting fact that flat adverbs used to be a lot more common than they are now. The guide offers charmingly odd-sounding examples such as “…I was horrid angry…,” a 1667 quotation from Samuel Pepys; and “…the weather was so violent hot,” from Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe,” published in 1719. Few modern speakers would utter such statements, and they really shouldn’t do so, as you’re not allowed to chop off any old “-ly.”

Which words are flat adverbs?

Modern speakers are, however, allowed to say things such as “Drive slow” and “Stay close.” Much as some sticklers would like these sentences to be as incorrect as “violent hot” is today, flat adverbs are real, and you can use them—really. Various style guides give many examples of bona fide flat adverbs. Here’s a short list: “far,” “fast,” “hard,” “slow,” “quick,” “straight” (3), “clean,” “close,” “deep,” and “fine” (4). So go ahead and say, “He kept his cards close” or “Please sit tight.”

Can words be both adjectives and adverbs?

“What?” you may be thinking. “Words like ‘far,’ ‘close,’ and ‘tight’ are adjectives!” You’re right, but they can also be adverbs. Some adjectives and adverbs have the same form, and that’s what a flat adverb is. Some of these adjective-adverb-whatever-they-are-thingies never change. So “fast” always stays “fast.” You get into the fast lane, and you drive fast if you don’t want to get rear ended. You never say, “fastly.” “Long” and “far” also fall into this category. You would definitely raise eyebrows if you tried to use “longly” or “farly.”

Now, you may also be thinking that you can sometimes stick an “-ly” onto these adjectives that are also adverbs. And you’d be right again! You are allowed to add an “-ly” to the word “close,” for example. You’ll get the very normal adverb “closely.”

Pairs of adverbs like this often convey different meanings, though, and you can’t always use them interchangeably. For example, the flat adverb “close” and the regular “-ly” adverb “closely” fall into this category. You could say, “Stand close,” but “Stand closely” would sound odd. You would use “closely” in a sentence such as “Look closely at this photograph.”

Other times both forms mean the same thing and you may use either one (5). Common pairs in this category include “Drive slow”/“Drive slowly” and “Hold on tight”/“Hold on tightly” (6). Go ahead and pick whichever one sounds best to you for your particular sentence. If you’re unsure about the form of an adverb, check your dictionary.

The verdict

Let’s now look back at the questions we posed at the beginning: Are “Drive slow,” “Jump high,” “Sit up straight,” and “Eat fresh” OK to use? The first three are a definite yes. You could also say, “Drive slowly,” but you’d never say, “Jump highly” or “Sit up straightly.” Those are just weird.

As for the “Eat Fresh” titles, let’s just call it an example of a creative adverb that is meant to bring attention to itself.

Advertisers and marketers sometimes push the boundaries of correctness just to get noticed. Although “fresh” does not appear to be an official flat adverb, it can be an adverb, as in the phrase “fresh out.” You might say, “We’re fresh out of mayonnaise.” You just don’t normally pair “fresh” with the verb “to eat.” “Freshly,” on the other hand, is an established adverb that you would use in a sentence such as “I ate the freshly baked cookies,” but you couldn’t say, “Eat freshly.”

The most generous way to interpret “eat fresh” is to say that there’s an implied noun at the end and that the adjective “fresh” modifies that noun. So, it could mean “Eat fresh sandwiches,” but that feels like a stretch. Unless you’re writing marketing or advertising copy, I don’t recommend that you write this creative. I mean, this creatively.

Conclusion

To sum up, flat adverbs are a real type of adverb. Just make sure that you’re using a bona fide flat adverb and that you aren’t leaving out a necessary “-ly.” If you’d rather not irritate the sensitive types, you could always rephrase your sentence or use the “-ly” form if it is allowed in your particular sentence.

Before we say, “That’s all,” let’s acknowledge that you did work hard as you listened today. You were not hardly working.

References

1. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, p. 451. 1994. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
2. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, p. 451. 1994. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
3. Lutz, Gary, and Diane Stevenson. 2005. Grammar Desk Reference, pp. 37-8. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books.
4. Burchfield, R. W, ed. 1996. The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Third Edition, p. 23. New York: Oxford.
5. Lutz, Gary, and Diane Stevenson. 2005. Grammar Desk Reference, pp. 37-8. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books.
6. Lutz, Gary, and Diane Stevenson. 2005. Grammar Desk Reference, pp. 37-8. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books.

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