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Advice about adverbs is complex. I will try to explain simply. Adverbs make writing more vibrant and interesting – sometimes. The 'sometimes' comes from the type of adverb. There are different ty...
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#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30262 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Advice about adverbs is complex. I will try to explain simply. Adverbs make writing more vibrant and interesting – sometimes. The 'sometimes' comes from the type of adverb. There are different types of adverbs. The basic categories are those that modify: 1. verbs e.g. He ran **slowly**. 2. adjectives e.g. She was **very** small. 3. other adverbs e.g. He ran **extremely** slowly. 4. whole sentences/clauses e.g. **Yesterday** , we ate pizza. It is the first type, those that change verbs, which we need to think about more. Consider these pairs of sentences: She spoke quietly. She whispered. He talked loudly. He shouted. The man walked slowly along the path. The man shuffled along the path. I hope that you will agree that for most purposes the second one is better. Of course, no writing rule is ever absolute, but replacing ‘ly’ adverbs with strong verbs is a good idea.