I did a lot of TV watching this past weekend, and I can’t tell you how many times I had to correct an on-screen adverb disaster. Just a little lesson on the part of speech: Adverbs describe verbs. They answer questions like how, when, where, and how much. Think of words like quickly, often, and early.
On “The Sopranos,” Carmela asked her mother-in-law (Livia Soprano cracks me up, by the way), “Who’s treating you bad?” I’m sure that this is an example of art imitating real speech. Badly, not bad, indicates the manner of being treated. On another channel, one person praised another saying “It came out perfect!” Perfectly tells how “it” came out.
Now I know that all adverbs don’t make use of the “ly” tag. The above are just the ones that stuck. Any additions besides the obvious “I use adverbs good!” image above? I’d love to have that button.
– Natasha Dorsainvil
