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Issue 13
August 2008
Adverbs ARE Awkward
On this one-year anniversary of The Awkward Adverb, we'd like to stand up for our namesake, the adverb. "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs," wrote Stephen King, a man who knows a thing or two about hell. "I am dead to adverbs," claimed Mark Twain. And essayist H.L. Mencken once said that adverbs are "at best the stepchild of grammar."
Adverbs like "very" can be very overused, and others are often misused—notably those with the -ly ending. When people say, "The plane flies direct to New York" (not directly) or "You should drive slow" (not slowly), they're mistakenly using an adjective in place of an adverb. Other people counter, however, that adverbs have legitimate "flat" forms…that the -ly ending is not essential, at least not informally. Perhaps the most notorious violator of the -ly standard was Apple with its "Think Different" campaign from the late 1990's.
Shouldn't that be "Think Differently"? Yes, strictly speaking. The ad execs who dreamt up this slogan most likely decided that "different" was punchier or more conceptual. At The Awkward Adverb, the slogan's grammar simply hurts our ears. Although the advertising world considered the "Think Different" campaign successful, it annoyed educators. Coincidentally or not, the campaign happened to correspond with a pronounced sales slump for Apple in the education market.
Adverbs may be awkward stepchildren, but stepchildren need love, too.
About this E-mail
The Awkward Adverb, an e-mail newsletter sent out once a month, highlights English-language flaws that have appeared on a sign, in print, on the Web, or anywhere in the public sphere. It may address grammatical errors, careless usage, bothersome buzzwords, punctuation problems, misspellings, or confusing writing in general.
Subscribers are encouraged to submit their findings for future editions of The Awkward Adverb by responding to this e-mail. Archived past issues of the newsletter are located here.
Henry Alpert, editor of The Awkward Adverb, is a New Orleans-based copywriter and business writer who works with businesses, ad agencies, and graphic design firms on a wide array of writing projects. For more information about his services, visit action-copy.com.
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