Adverbs Spelling -LY

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.

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 expectations:

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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Last Updated: 15 January 2009