Adverbs

“… did not have anyway to contact current members.”

Adverbs

I saw this in a corporate presentation.

Problem:
The single word “anyway” is incorrect in this sentence.

Explanation:
The sentence appeared in a presentation about a company’s customer-care systems.

The single word “anyway” is an adverb that means regardless or in any case.

An example of the proper use of the adverb “anyway” is “Although he hates the car, she is keeping it anyway.”

If we replace the adverb “anyway” in the presentation that I saw with the adverb’s definition, then we get “… did not have regardless to contact current members.”, which is nonsensical and clearly proves that the adverb “anyway” does not belong in the sentence.

The writer of the sentence actually was stating that there was not a method or way to contact current members.

This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“… did not have any way to contact current members.”

“He hit the ball hardly.” vs. “He hardly hit the ball.”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Versus

I thought of the adjective “soft” and its adverbial form “softly” and was not sure whether the adverbial form of the adjective “hard” was “hardly”.

Problem:
The most popular meanings of the adverb “hardly” are not the opposite of the adverb “softly”.

Explanation:
If you ask most Americans what the adverbial form of the adjective “soft” is, they very likely will respond that it is the adverb “softly”.

However, if you ask most Americans what the adverbial form of the adjective “hard” is, they probably will not respond that it is the adverb “hardly”.

From most to least popular, here are four definitions of the adverb “hardly”:

  1. barely — as in “He hardly graduated from high school.”;
  2. scarcely — as in “The news is hardly surprising.”;
  3. with small likelihood — as in “She will hardly attend the wedding.”;
  4. forcefully — as in “He threw the baseball hardly.”

So the fourth definition of the adverb “hardly” does go with the adjective “hard” in the same way that the most common definition of adverb “softly” goes with the adjective “soft” .

It is worth noting that — at least in American English — the first three definitions typically go with putting the adverb “hardly” adjacent to the verb, whereas the fourth definition typically goes with putting the adverb “hardly” adjacent to the object upon which the action is performed forcefully.

This gives us the solution.

Solution:
Use “He hit the ball hardly.” as a substitute for “He hit the ball forcefully.” Use “He hardly hit the ball.” as a substitute for “He barely hit the ball.”

Fun with Numbers

Adjectives, Adverbs, Nouns, Number, Verbs

I realized recently that I did not know well how to express different types of numbers in Italian.

I started thinking about examples in English and realized that there are several types of numbers and number-related words.

It became a game to list examples of these different types in English.

The game became more interesting when I determined that there was very little coverage about this topic on the Web.

For example, Wikipedia has an article about the names of numbers in English, but this article does not cover every type of number and number-related word that I could identify.

Because my list kept growing, I decided to wait a bit before trying to create the same list for Italian.

Here is my list for English:

  • One, two, three, … :
    • Name: These are called “cardinal numbers”, or “cardinals” for short.
    • Use: Cardinal numbers are for counting things. Two sets of objects (e.g., automobiles and flowers) have the same “cardinality” if the two sets have the same number of objects.
    • Form: These words can act as nouns or adjectives.
  • First, second, third, … :
    • Name: These are called “ordinal numbers”, or “ordinals” for short.
    • Use: Ordinal numbers are for ordering things (that is, placing things in a certain order).
    • Form: These words can act as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. The word “second” can also act as a verb.
  • Once, twice, thrice, … :
    • Name: I do not know the name for this type of number-related word.
    • Use: These words are for referring to the number of times, occasions, or instances or for referring to an n-fold quantity or degree.
    • Form: These words act only as adverbs.
  • Single, double, triple, … :
    • Name: I do not know the name for this type of number-related word.
    • Use: These words are for referring to the number of parts, kinds, or degrees or for referring to a group, set, or series.
    • Form: These words can act as nouns, adjectives, or verbs.
  • Twin, triplet, quadruplet, … :
    • Name: As with “one”, “two”, “three”, etc., these words also are defined as “cardinal numbers”.
    • Use: These words can be used to refer to items as a collection. These words can also be used to refer to any item in such a collection.
    • Form: These words act as nouns. The word “twin” can also act as an adjective or a verb.
  • Singular, plural, trial … :
    • Name: These are called “grammatical number” in linguistics.
    • Use: Among their many uses, these words are for expressing count distinctions in grammar.
    • Form: These words can act as adjectives or nouns.

I am sure that I missed some number-related words, but that is part of the fun of this exercise!