Adverbs Spelling -LY

English Grammar Rules

Adjective vs. Adverb Review

Adjectives describe nouns (things).

• My dog is slow.

Slow is an adjective since it describes the subject (my dog).

How is my dog? Slow

Adverbs describe verbs (actions).

• My dog eats slowly.

Slowly is an adverb since it describes the way my dog eats.

How does my dog eat? Slowly.

For details see our page about Adjectives vs Adverbs.

Adverbs -LY

Adverbs are normally formed by adding -LY to the end of an adjective.

E.g. Quick - Quickly

For adjectives that end in -l or -e, we simply add -ly:

There are of course some exceptions:

Adverbs ending in -Y

For adjectives that end in -y, we remove the -y and add -ily:

Adverbs ending in -LE

For adjectives that end in a consonant + le we remove the -e and add -y:

Adverbs ending in -IC

If the adjective ends in -ic, we add -ally:

Except: public - publicly

Irregular Adverbs

Some adverbs are irregular:

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Learn more about adverbs of frequency

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