Flat adverb

InEnglishgrammar,aflat adverb,bare adverb,orsimple adverbis anadverbthat has the same form as the correspondingadjective,so it usually does not end in-ly,e.g. "driveslow","drivefast","dresssmart",etc. The term includes words that naturally end in -ly in both forms, e.g." drivefriendly".Flat adverbs were once quite common but have been largely replaced by their-lycounterparts. In the 18th century, grammarians believed flat adverbs to be adjectives, and insisted that adverbs needed to end in-ly.According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "It's these grammarians we have to thank for... the sad lack of flat adverbs today".There are now only a few flat adverbs, and some are widely thought of as incorrect.Despite bare adverbs being grammatically correct and widely used by respected authors, they are often stigmatized.There have even been public campaigns against street signs with the traditional text "go slow" and the innovative text "drive friendly."

Bare adverbs that alternate with -ly forms

Use of the wordthushas slowly declined since the 1800s.

For most bare adverbs, an alternative form exists ending in-ly(slowly). Sometimes the-lyform has a different meaning (hardly,nearly,cleanly,rightly,closely,lowly,shortly), and sometimes the -ly form is not used for certain meanings (sit tight,sleep tight).The adverbseldomis a curious example. It dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, but starting in the 1960s the same word began appearing in English books asseldomly.It has been hypothesized that the decline in usage ofseldomin English, combined with the 18th century insistence on adverbs ending in-ly,resulted in its occasionally used-lyform.Similarly, usage of the word "thus" has fallen since 1800 – while usage of an-lyform,thusly,has spiked recently.

Use of the wordthuslygrew over time. Notice the difference of scale with the previous graph. Despite the trend, the source still liststhusas roughly 10,000 times more frequent asthuslyin 2000.

Usage offirstandfirstlyat the beginning of a sentence since 1800. Position at the beginning means they are likely bothsentential adverbs.

Numerical adjectives (first,second,last) rarely are used in an-lyform despite having a valid alternative. While words likefirstlyandlastlyexist, their flat form is much more commonly used. Here, in contrast to other flat adverbs such asgood( "they cookgood"), the flat form is universally accepted in English as proper speech.

Bare adverbs that do not alternate

Some bare adverbs don't alternate; e.g.fast,straight,tough,far,low.In addition, the ending-lyis also found on some words that are both adverbs and adjectives (e.g.friendly) and some words that are only adjectives (e.g.lonely).

Nearly all irregular comparative adjectives in English can take on adverbial form and never use the-ly.Some examples aregood, bad, little, much,andfar– and their comparative forms (e.g.betterandbest).

My best number was the one I'd practicedleast.

Which one hurtmore?

Steel and coal companies were the onesworstaffected by tariffs.

Analyses of bare adverbs

Flat adverbs work asintensifiersthat modify specific words. Consider sentences containingrealandreally(* signifies ungrammaticality):

I really like the pie.

I real like the pie.*

Here,realbecomesreallyto become an adverb to the verblike,whilerealcannot do the same and remain flat. According to data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English,realwas followed by a verb only 657 times.For comparison,realwas followed by an adjective 12,813 times, withgoodbeing the most common adjective collocated (1,584 times).In this case,realcan only modify adjectives.

This pie tastes really good.

This pie tastes real good. (informal)

This pie really tastes good. (meaning is changed)

This pie real tastes good.*

Alternatively, the flat adverbsurecan only modify verbs. Citing data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English,surewas followed by a verb 7,396 times, but it was rarely followed by an adjective at only 470 times.Compare:

We sure had a great time.

We surely had a great time.

We had a sure great time.*

We had a surely great time. (meaning is changed)

This can possibly be explained by the differing uses of the suffix-ly,and another adverbial suffix,-e.According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are two different uses of the suffix-ly:when the suffix transforms a word into an adjective (e.g.brotherly), and when it forms an adverb.The suffix's origins are in Old English, coming from -lice,which is related to the German -lich.Due to its use in history, many verbs and adverbs have been formed from roots that are harder to recognize today (compare:verilyasvery+ly,onlyasone+ly, especiallyasespecial+ly). Before-ly,-ewas the most common adverbial suffix in Old English. The suffixes were not competing and could even be used interchangeably (rhyte – rhytliceare both'rightly'). Examinations of texts from the time period show that the -eform was more common in poetry, while the-liceform was more common in prose.

As English developed as a language, it began weakening its vowels, and as such the -esuffix gradually disappeared, making the adverbs bare.Some words retained adverbial use without the -e,such aslong, fast,orhard.The adverbs had dwindled in number but did not die out entirely.

At this point in Old English, the adverbial system was still not as developed as it would become in later stages.Sentential adverbswere beginning to be developed and adverbs became used in more specific ways, and the vowel weakening -ein tandem with more easily expressed -lyforms caused -lyto become the dominant adverbial form.Although there were no categorical changes between flat adverbs and the new adverbs, their use was generally limited. More and more adverbs took on this form for greater homogeneity among the class. John Earle wrote that a flat adverb was "simply a substantive or an adjective placed in the adverbial position." However, he found that flat adverbs are not suitable for many of the advanced uses that a modern adverb might be.An example of a more advanced adverb would be the sententialnaturally,as innaturally, we got along.

Acceptability over time

The term 'flat adverb' was coined in 1871 by John Earle, and even in that time they were viewed as "rustic and poetic" because they were "archaic". Flat adverbs were relatively common in English through the 18th century, although more so in the United States. Earle writes that the flat adverb was "all but universal with the illiterate".One recorded example of their use is in letters by authorJane Austen.She usednear,exceeding,andterribleas flat adverbs in one letter – and usage such as this was common in spoken discourse.

Although grammarians stigmatized them, flat adverbs are found to be accepted by English speakers and their usage has grown over the past century. A survey carried out in the 1960s studied people's attitudes towards usage problems in English. The examples "you'd better go slow" (rather thanslowly) and "he did it quicker than he'd ever done it before" (rather thanmore quickly) contained flat adverbs – and the latter was found to be acceptable by just 42% of respondents.However, in a follow-up in the 2010s by the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, using the same examples from the 1960s survey and others containing flat adverbs, they found that acceptance of flat adverbs has become much more widespread in recent years.Quickerwas found to have an acceptance rate of 75%, while "you'd better go slow" was universally accepted.