Today’s two grammar tips:
- The first comes from Ned Maniscalco, a friend in St. Louis, who sent this tip: “I’ve noted a disturbing increase in the misspelling of adverbs such as publicly (‘publically’), accidentally (‘accidently) and incidentally (‘incidently’). A good general rule to remember is that an adverb is the result of adding the suffix ‘-ly’ to a word’s adjectival form. Thus, there is no need to tack an ‘-al’ onto ‘public’ because it’s already an adjective. In contrast, one cannot simply add ‘-ly’ to ‘accident’ or ‘incident,’ which are nouns. They must be converted to adjectives by adding ‘-al’.
“There are, of course, exceptions. ‘Ironic,’ for example, is an adjective, but its adverbial form is ‘ironically.’ And because the adjectival form of ‘coincidence’ can be either ‘coincident’ or ‘coincidental,’ both ‘coincidentally’ or ‘coincidently’ are deemed acceptable.”
- Adverse means unfavorable, contrary or hostile. Averse means having a strong feeling of opposition, antipathy or repugnance. If you sail despite adverse weather conditions, you are not averse to risk.
Thanks for visiting. While you’re here, please look around the site. You can subscribe via e-mail or RSS feed. The tools to do so are at the top of the right-hand column. To share or retweet the entry, use the buttons below. You can follow me on Twitter: @peterfaur
