Regular and Irregular Adverbs

What is a regular adverb?

Adverbs generally correspond to an adjective, so that when we want to apply the adjective’s meaning to a verb
(or to an adjective or another adverb), we have a straightforward way to do so. Regular adverbs are formed by
adding “-ly” or some variation thereof onto the end of the adjective. Sometimes the adjective’s spelling needs to
be altered slightly to accommodate this, but the rules of doing so are fairly straightforward.

What is an irregular adverb?

Irregular adverbs, on the other hand, are adverbs that are not formed from standard English spelling
conventions. Because they do not follow the “rules,” there is no trick to using them: you simply have to
memorize them. Here is a table of the most common irregular adverbs and their adjectival counterparts:
Irregular
Adjective Sources of Confusion
Adverb

fast fast
hard hard Hardly (ever) is an adverb of frequency, meaning “almost never.”
straight straight
Lively still exists as an adverb in phrases like “step lively.” However, it is more often
lively lively
used in the adverbial prepositional phrase “in a lively manner.”
late late Lately is a different adverb that means “recently.”
daily daily
early early
friendly no adverb Can be used in the adverbial prepositional phrase “in a friendly manner.”
timely no adverb Can be used in the adverbial prepositional phrase “in a timely manner.”
good well Well is the adverb form of good; it can also function as a predicative adjective.
First, let’s examine the normal rules for making regular adverbs, and then we’ll examine more closely
the irregular adverbs above that do not follow these rules.

Regular adverbs
Regular adverbs are formed by taking an adjective and adding some form of the suffix “-ly.” Sometimes the
spelling of the adjective changes to accommodate this suffix; sometimes the suffix itself must change. As with
most spelling rules in English, though, there are exceptions even to these patterns. We’ll look at these rules
individually below, and highlight any exceptions to each.

Adjective + “-ly”
The most straightforward rule is to simply add “-ly” to the end of an adjective, without changing the spelling at
all. This occurs when an adjective ends in a consonant (except for “-ic”) or a consonant + “-e” (except for “-
le”). For example:

 “She is a beautiful singer.”

 “She sings beautifully.”

 “He is a slow walker.”

 “He walks slowly.”

 “This is the last item we need to discuss.”

 “Lastly, let’s discuss the impact on the environment.”

Adjectives ending in “-ic”

Sometimes the spelling of a word will have to change slightly so as to better accommodate the extra “-ly.” If the
adjective ends in “-ic,” for instance, it will become “-ically”:

 “They are enthusiastic students.”

 “They work enthusiastically.”

 “There are some drastic differences between these.”

 “These are drastically different.”

The one exception to this rule is the adjective public, which becomes the adverb publicly.

Adjectives ending in “-y”

If the adjective ends in a “-y,” it is replaced with “-ily”:

 “The children are happy when they are playing.”

 “The children are playing happily.”

 “Why are you so noisy when you eat?”

 “Quit eating so noisily!”

Adjectives ending in “-le” and “-ue”

For adjectives ending in “-le” or “-ue,” the “e” on the end is dropped and is replaced with “-ly”:

 “He is a terrible golfer.”

 “He plays golf terribly.”

 “You will get what is due so long as you are true to your word."
 “It is duly noted that the defendant is truly remorseful.”

Irregular Adverbs
The majority of adverbs end in “-ly,” but as we will see, there are some irregular ones that need to be
memorized.

Spelling doesn’t change

Fast is one of the irregular adverbs—the adjective and the adverb are the same. For example:
“A Ferrari is a fast car.
“He drives fast.”
Hard is another irregular adverb. If we say, “I work hardly,” it could impede understanding. The listener may
think you mean, “I hardly work,” which has the opposite meaning (hardly (ever) is a frequency adverb and
means “very rarely”). The correct use of hard as an adverb would simply be “I work hard.”
Other exceptions to the spelling rules include straight, lively, late, and early, which all have the same spelling
whether they are used as adjectives or as adverbs. For example:

 “Draw a straight line.”

 “We drove straight.”

 “It was a lively game.”

 “Step lively,* everyone!”

 “I think I need to have an early night.”

 “I’m going to bed early tonight.”

Late vs. Lately

A common source of confusion is the proper use of the words “late” and “lately.” Late, as already mentioned, is
both an adjective and an adverb. Lately, on the other hand, is only an adverb of time meaning “recently.” For
example:

 “Why are you always late?” (adjective)

 “We arrived late.” (adverb)
 “I’ve been feeling unwell lately.” (adverb of time)
 “I hope the guests don’t arrive lately.” (Incorrect)

Only adjectives
Timely and friendly are only adjectives. To use these as adverbs, we simply use them in an adverbial
prepositional phrase, such as “in a ______ way/manner”:

 “Please arrive in a timely manner.”

 “He spoke to me in a friendly way.”

*Though lively still exists as an adverb in phrases like “step lively,” it is more often used in an adverbial
prepositional phrase, such as:

 “The boys all played in a lively manner.”

Adverbs of frequency
Adverbs of frequency that deal with specific measures of time and end in “-ly” can function both as adjectives
and adverbs. Examples of these include yearly, weekly, daily, and hourly. For instance:

 “It’s good to have a daily routine.” (adjective)

 “I make sure to exercise daily.” (adverb)

 “I want weekly updates, Jenkins!” (adjective)

 “I update the boss weekly.” (adverb)

Wrong vs. Wrongly

The adjective wrong can become the adverb wrongly, but we can use wrong as an irregular adverb as well—
both are acceptable. However, wrong as an adverb must come after the verb it modifies, as in:

 “I guessed wrong.”
 “He filled out the form wrong.”

Wrongly, on the other hand, can be used either before or after the word it modifies:

 “He was wrongly accused.”

 “They judged the case wrongly.”

Good vs. Well

Good is an adjective used to describe a noun; well is the adverb derived from good and describes how you do
something. For example:

 “I speak English well.” (correct)

 “I speak English good.” (incorrect)

 “I did well on the English exam.” (correct)

 “I did good on the English exam.” (incorrect)

“I speak English good” is incorrect, as we need to use an adverb when describing a verb. In the last example, “I
did good” is incorrect because we need an adverb to describe how the speaker did on the exam. The phrase “do
good” is especially tricky, because it can also mean “to do good or virtuous deeds.” (Good in this sense is a
noun acting as the object of the verb.)

Adjectives after linking verbs

It is important to remember that linking verbs (such as be, become, get, and the sense verbs feel, taste, look,
sound, smell, and seem) are followed by predicative adjectives, not adverbs. For example:

 “You seem happy.”

 “She sounds English.” (An opinion based on her voice.)
 “We became tired.”
 “You look good.”
 “You look well.”

Notice that the last two examples are both correct. Not only is well an adverb, but it also functions as an
adjective. Its opposite adjective is ill, while the opposite of good is bad. When we say, “You look good,” we are
referring to the person’s physical appearance. If, on the other hand, we say, “You look well,” we are referring to
the health or well-being of the person. To learn more about adjectives that follow linking verbs, as well as the
“good/well” distinction, see the chapter on Predicative Adjectives.