Brenda W.

asked • 02/16/16

practical english

Which of the following sentences contains an incorrect use of an adjective pr adverb? a) He won the race easily b) She did very well on that test c) Please don't play with the baby so roughly. d) She wants to go to the concert real bad

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Morgan S. answered • 02/16/16

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D is incorrect. Although I honestly am not sure but I think it should technically be "really badly". 
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Ed M.

I concur with Morgan R. about d) being "incorrect," and I also agree that the rules of Standard Written English would call for really badly to be used in place of "real bad" in this sentence for the reasons (1) that a formally-marked adverb, i.e., generally an adjective to which is added the -ly suffix, would be required in this sentence and (2) the formal rule is that most words that modify an adverb must also be adverbs themselves, not adjectives as real is, thus because real modifies bad(ly) in this sentence, real also must "become" the adverb really.
 
But of course in informal English, the use of both bad and real as adverbs is quite common, in the former case along with many other frequent one-syllable words like slow, and perhaps on analogy with the adverb fast which is actually irregular in that it does not take -ly, or any other suffix or marker, to create its adverb form.
 
 
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02/17/16

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