INSTITUTO DE IDIOMAS

UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA

INGLS II

Formation of "-ly" Adverbs

In general, add -ly to adjective

slow - slowly;
careful - carefully;
active - actively;
(Note that a final -e does not disappear, except in the following case:

bad - badly

Adjective ends in -le: change to - ly

terrible - terribly; possible - possibly
Adjective ends in -y: change -y to -i and add - ly
happy - happily
Adjective ends in -ic: add -ally
basic - basically

Exceptions:
good
fast
early
late
hard
-

well
fast
early
late (lately means "ltimamente")
hard (hardly means "apenas";

N.B. Some words ending in -ly are adjectives, not adverbs, e.g. silly, friendly, lovely, etc.
These words have no corresponding adverb. Instead, we use either the adverb from a similar word stupidly - or an adverbial phrase - in a friendly way - etc.
Exercises:
A) Form adverbs from the following adjectives.
1. sad

sadly

8. careless carelessly

15. sensible sensibly

2. wise

wisely

9. immediate immediately

16. lucky luckily

3. easy

easily

10. true * truly

17. fatherly

11. false false

18. awful awfully

12. dry * dryly

13. political politically

19. uncomfortable
uncomfortably

14. dramatic dramatically

20. surprising surprisingly

4. short shortly
5. marvellous marvellously
6. fortunate fortunately
7. responsible responsibly

B) Complete the sentences with the correct form of the word in parentheses.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

He answered me sarcastically when I asked him a silly question. (sarcastic)

The two boys played noisily in their bedroom all evening. (noisy)
I'm afraid I play the piano really badly. (bad)
My cousin works hard (hard)
Please don't drive so fast! (fast)
Read the contract carefully before you sign it. (careful)
He happily showed me his new BMW. (happy)
The exam was terribly difficult. (terrible)

9. He speaks Japanese quite well . (good)

10. - Is your sister coming to the party? - Possibly I'm not sure. (possible)