Many adverbs do not end in -ly. Examples include always, soon, today, ever, yet, away, here, so, too.
One unusual adverb is hard, as in They fought hard. It contrasts with the ‘semi-negative’ adverb hardly, meaning ‘scarcely’. Other cases where the adverb has the same form as the adjective include fast (He drives fast) and straight (It flew straight at me). There are no such words as X. fastly and X. straightly, despite the existence of slowly, quickly, crookedly, and the like. Notice the adverbial use of fast, sound, and wide before certain adjectives:
I was fast/sound asleep. (Contrast: I was sleeping soundly.) The baby’s wide awake.
Some -ing words are used similarly: spanking new, hopping mad, raving mad, and boiling hot. You cannot speak of a X. spankingly new car.
Adverbs follow rather different rules. Some short ones take -er -sooner, soonest – including many that are identical with adjectives: earlier, earliest; faster, fastest; and later, latest.
Most adverbs, however, even those of two syllables, take more and most: more fully, most wisely.
Remember that when only two things are under consideration, the adjective should take the comparative (-er, more) form rather than the superlative (-est, most): X. Of her two novels, the second is surely best. A few idioms do allow this oddity – May the best man win – but avoid it elsewhere.
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In the use of only, natural idiom is often at odds with logical word order. It is quite natural to say John only gave his sister 5 dollars. But purists would say that only relates to 5 dollars, and so should go directly before it: John gave his sister only 5 dollars. In the same way, they argue, I only saw Mary yesterday strictly means that I saw her but did not, say, speak to her; the sentence should be I saw only Marry yesterday (I saw Mary, but not her husband Edward or any of her children) or I saw Marry only yesterday (it was only yesterday that I saw her).
In informal Usage, however, the most natural place for only is usually just before the verb. The context usually helps to make the meaning clear, and in speech the intonation does too: in the previous example, a stress on Mary or Yesterday (or saw) would accurately convey the sense intended.
But if ambiguity really does threaten, it is doubly important to position the only as close as possible to the word or phrase it modifies. Suppose you received the following note:
? I shall only send you 5 dollars towards the appeal if you write to me again.
Would you write again, or not? A properly helpful and unambiguous message would position the only either before 5 dollars or before if, depending on the intended meaning.
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If elements in a sentence are proposed as parallel in kind, they should be presented as parallel in structure. The following sentence fails to meet this simple requirement:
X. She is stubborn, selfish and has a sharp temper.
The three elements are not symmetrical here, and should not be organised as though they were. Either rearrange the elements so that they no longer pretend to be equally weighted –
She is stubborn and selfish, and has a sharp temper
– or make them symmetrical in structure:
She is stubborn, selfish, and quick-tempered.
Such failures of symmetry are particularly common with ‘correlative conjunction ‘ such as either . . . or . . . and not only . . . but also . . .
X. Not only is that a very unfair statement, but also quite untrue.
The structures following not only and but (also) should match each other closely. In this example, however, the not only elements contains a verb, whereas the but also element does not.
The sentence can be reconstructed so that both elements have a verb, or neither elements has:
That statement is not only very unfair, but also quite untrue.
Not only is that a very unfair statement, but it is also quite untrue.
Next consider this faulty construction:
X. The actors were criticised both by their friends and their enemies.
Again the correlative conjunctions both and and demand matching constructions. Yet here the both-phrase contains the preposition by, whereas the and-phrase lacks it. The two elements can, theoretically, be brought into parallel in either of two ways:
? The actors were criticised both by their friends and by their enemies.
The second version here remains unsatisfactory, however, since it introduces an ambiguity into the sentence: the phrase both their friends could be taken on its own to suggest that the actors have only two friends.

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The top of a mountain is called, as you know, the summit, a word derived from Latin summus, highest, which also gives us the mathematical term sum, as in addition. A consummate artist has reached the very highest point of perfection; and to consummate a marriage, a business deal, or a contract is, etymologically, to bring it to the highest point; that is, to put the final touches to it, to bring it to completion.
[Note how differently consummate, the adjective, can be pronounced, compared with the verb to consummate.]
Nouns are formed from adjectives by the addition of the noun suffix -nes: sweet – sweetness; simple – simpleness; envious – enviousness; etc.
Many adjectives, however, have alternate noun forms, and the adjective consummate is one of them. To make a noun out of consummate, add either -ness or -acy; consummateness or consummacy.
Verb ending in -ate invariably tack on the noun suffix -ion to form nouns: create – creation; evaluate – evaluation; etc.
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‘Widely but unfavourably known’ is the common definition for notorious. Just as a notorious liar is well-known for unreliable statements, so a notorious gambler, a notorious thief, or a notorious killer has achieved a wide reputation for some form of antisocial behaviour. The noun is notoriety.
The derivation is from Latin notus, known, from which we also get noted. It is an interesting characteristic of some words that a change of syllables can alter the emotional impact. Thus, an admirer of certain business executives will speak of them as ‘noted industrialists’; these same people’s enemies will call them ‘notorious exploiters’. Similarly, if we admire a man’s or a woman’s unworldliness, we refer to it by the complimentary term childlike; but if we are annoyed by the trait, we describe it, derogatively, as childish. Change ‘-like’ to ‘-ish’ and our emotional tone undergoes a complete reversal.
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