Q&A: Is “loudly” a word? Is the sentence “She speaks loudly” correct?
Question by jashomara: Is “loudly” a word? Is the sentence “She speaks loudly” correct?
My mom is just bent on telling my brother and I that “loudly” and “badly” and other words like that are not proper english. She says sentences like: “She speaks loudly.” are incorrect.
Who is right? Is “She speaks loudly.” a correct sentence.
I just want you to answer a simple question. There is no need to bad mouth my mom. Thank you.
Best answer:
Answer by sunny
loudly and badly are words. they’re called adverbs…
What do you think? Answer below!
It is word.
Yes, loudly is a word and that is a correct sentence. Tell your mom to open a dictionary.
Actually, I’m going to go with your mom. I remember the nuns in fifth grade marking me down for trying to say “The cake tastes badly.” I still don’t quite get it.
But when you’ve got nuns and moms in the same corner, what are you gonna do?
She’s wrong. You can confirm it for yourself by searching Google Books and Google News Archives for “speaks loudly”:
Published books http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&tbs=bks%3A1&q=%22speaks+loudly%22&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
News Archives http://news.google.co.uk/archivesearch?pz=1&cf=all&ned=uk&hl=en&q=%22speaks+loudly%22&cf=all
Same for “badly”:
Books http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=badly&ned=uk&hl=en&tbo=u&tbs=bks:1&source=og&sa=N&tab=np
News http://news.google.co.uk/archivesearch?pz=1&cf=all&ned=uk&hl=en&q=badly&cf=all
Millions of occurrences in reliable sources ought to be enough evidence that they’re correct.
PS Memphis Belle: the problem there is that it’s a different context. “Badly” is used for the adverb (i.e. doing something in a inept way), but it’s “bad” when you mean the adjective, as in “this cake tastes bad” (where “bad” means off/rotten/unpleasant). To be fair, there has been a big usage shift in US English over 150 years or so, so it’s unsurprising there’s confusion – see Merriam-Webster page 160 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&pg=PA160 .