En general, los adverbios de modo tienen como raiz un adjetivo al cual se añade el sufijo -ly (quick – quickly), lo que nos permite en inglés distinguirlos rápidamente de los adjetivos. Además, normalmente los adjetivos acompañan a un nombre o al verbo to be, mientras que los adverbios de modo están cerca del verbo. En la lección de hoy, me gustaría matizar este cuadro de uso de los adverbios de modo, y presentaros algunas excepciones tanto en la forma como en la función de los adjetivos y de los adverbios de modo en inglés.

1. Aspectos formales

El sufijo -ly es, en general, la marca de los adverbios de modo en inglés.

The parcel was delivered swiftly. (adverbio)

The swift delivery of the parcel took us by surprise. (adjetivo)

Sinembargo hay que considerar:

He had a friendly look.

He looked at us in a friendly way.

Esto no se aplica a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, early y leisurely que son tanto adjetivos como adverbios:

This is a daily newspaper. // This newspaper is published daily.

He is an early bird. // He always arrives early.

He was the first guest to arrive. // He arrived first.

They carried out a fine analysis of our needs. // This suits us fine.

He hit the low ceiling. // The plane flew low.

He is a fast driver. // He drives fast.

The children were playing quietly in their room yesterday evening.

2. Aspectos semanticos

Algunos adverbios tienen dos formas, que por lo general, tienen dos significados diferentes:

late – lately: He arrived late. (=not on time) vs. I haven’t seen him lately (= recently)

hard – hardly: He works hard. (= a lot) vs. He hardly works ( = very little)

high – highly: The dancer leapt high. ( = far from the ground) vs. We have always thought highly of you. ( = with a lot of respect)

deep – deeply: We like diving deep. ( = far from the surface) vs. I am deeply sorry for what has happened. ( = very)

free – freely: Children can travel free with us. ( = without paying) vs. In democratic countries, everyone can speak freely about their political orientation. (= without restrictions)

sharp – sharply: You need to here at 10 o’clock sharp. (=punctually) vs. She sang sharp. (= on a high note) vs. You spoke to her rather sharply. (= in a severe way)

short – shortly: He stopped short of the precipice. (= very near) vs. The results of the elections will be published shortly. (=very soon)

easy – easily: Take it easy! (=Relax!) vs. The solution was found easily. (= with no difficulty)

most – mostly: Which part of the concert did you like most?  (= best) vs. My friends are mostly in their early thirties. (= generally)

direct – directly: We are flying direct. (=by the shortest route) vs. He left the office directly after the meeting. (= immediately)

• Ejercicio 1:  Confusiones con los adjetivos y los adverbios de modo

• Ejercicio 2:  La posición de los adverbios de modo

• Ejercicio 3:  Colocaciones con adverbios y adjetivos ingleses

• Ejercicio 4:  Adverbios de enunciación

• Ejercicio 5:  La posición de los adverbios

• Ejercicio 6:  Expresiones con los adverbios intensificadores “so” y “such”

• Diferencias entre verbos preposicionales y phrasal verbs