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She is a slow/slowly thinker. Slow does not answer how, so no -ly is attached. Slow is an adjective here. She thinks fast/fastly. Fast answers the question how, so it is an adverb. But fast never has an -ly attached to it. We performed bad/badly. Badly describes how we performed. Rule 2. A special -ly rule applies when four of the senses—taste, smell, look, feel—are the verbs. Do not ask if these senses answer the question how to determine if -ly should be attached. Instead, ask if the sense verb is being used actively. If so, use the -ly. Examples: Roses smell sweet/sweetly. Do the roses actively smell with noses? No, so no -ly. The woman looked angry/angrily. Did the woman actively look with eyes or are we describing her appearance? We are only describing appearance, so no -ly. The woman looked angry/angrily at the paint splotches. Here the woman did actively look with eyes, so the -ly is added. She feels bad/badly about the news. 31
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