My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

R
EVERENTLY
,
DISCREETLY
,
ADVISEDLY
,
SOBERLY
… (
OR
, A
DVERBS
)
‘When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.’
F
EDERAL
E
XPRESS SLOGAN
An adverb describes a verb, adjective or adverb. Adverbs answer questions such
as how , where , when , how much , how often ?
Many but by no means all adverbs in English end in -ly (almost,  once  ,  twice  ,
never , well , hard , fast , soon  and  there  are  all  adverbs),  and  many  but  by  no
means  all  the  words  that  end  in  -ly  are  adverbs  (manly,  beastly  and  holy  are
adjectives  and  family  ,  butterfly  and  barfly  are  nouns).  But  it  seems  that  in
everyday  speech  adverbs  are  steadily  disappearing  and  the  adjectival  form  is
being used instead.
The following are all commonly heard but grammatically incorrect:
He did the task clever and I was real impressed .
He always drives careful so he won’t get any points on his licence.

---

It rained so heavy the roof started to leak.
She divided them fair but the children still weren’t happy.
They should be:
He did the task clever ly and I was real ly impressed.
He always drives careful ly .
It rained so heavi ly .
She divided them fair ly .
Note  that  in  the  first  example,  cleverly  is  an  adverb  defining  the  verb  he  did
(How did he do the task? Cleverly) and really is an adverb defining the adjective
impressed (How impressed was I? Really impressed).