Hard or hardly, Late or Lately...; Adverbs that may confuse you

Hard Vs Hardly                 Deep vs Deeply      Free vs Freely                                 High vs Highly        Right vs Rightly                                     Direct vs Directly                          Late vs Lately



Adverb can be confusing. Generally, we hold the opinion that only the words with ly are adverb; however, this is not true. The words without ly can also be an adverb, like hardly is an adverb, and hard is also an adverb. Many of you may confuse that hardly is an adverb of hard. The confusion tends to make you blunder while writing. So, to make your writing flawless, we bring you pairs of such adverbs that may confuse you.

Hard vs Hardly
Hard as an adjective means very firm or solid, difficult.
Hard as an adverb means with great effort, with difficulty.

1. Cheese becomes very hard after sometime.
2. He works hard. (It means he works with a lot of effort.)

Hardly is an adverb. It means almost not, scarcely.

1. He works hardly. (It means he almost doesn't work.)
2. I could hardly see after the accident.

Deep vs Deeply
Deep can be adjective, adverb, noun. It means having a large distance from the top or surface to the bottom, top to bottom.

1. We went deep inside the cave. (adverb)
2. They almost lost in deep space. (adjective)

Deeply is an adverb. It means thoroughly.
It can also mean to a depth that is quite a long way from the surface of something; to a great depth

1. We drill deeply into the ground to bring out water.
2. The divers dived deeply in search for the four boys.
3. He was deeply involved in the corruption. (thoroughly/completely involved)

Note:

To denote great depth, you had better use deeply.  

Free vs Freely
Free can be adjective, adverb, and verb. It means without paying, under no control.

1. We live in a free country. (adjective)
2. Government frees the war prisoners. (verb)
3. I got the ticket free. (adverb)
4. Children under five travel free. (adverb)

Freely is an adverb; it means without limitation or control.

1. The ability to disagree freely is one of the great blessings of modern democracy. -Washington Post
2. Men and women moved freely around what appeared to be a main street. - The Guardian

Sometimes, it can also mean not costing any money.


High vs Highly
High can be adjective, noun, adverb. It means from bottom to top; as an adverb it means at a great altitude, at far from a source.

1. I can climb high on the mount Everest.  (adverb)
2. An eagle flies high over the clouds. (adverb)

Highly is an adverb. It means extremely.

1. Shahrukh khan is a highly successful person. (highly = extremely)

It can also mean in a high position or level or rank.

1. We sat with highly placed personalities.

Right vs Rightly
Right can be adjective, adverb, noun, and verb. It means direction opposite of left, morally correct, true.

1. You are right. (adjective)
2. Guests should be treated right. (adverb)
3. Soldiers make right decision. (adjective)

Rightly is an adverb. It means in a correct way, with honesty.

1. People rightly admires her singing. (adverb)
2. He is rightly selected as a winner. (adverb)

Direct vs Directly
Direct can be adjective, adverb, and verb.
As an adverb, it means without stopping.

1. We flew direct from Mumbai to Delhi.

As a verb, it means to command.
As an adjective, it means done something without involving other people between them.

1. They are in direct contact with their parents.

Directly is an adverb. It means immediately, shortly.

1. I will be in hospital directly.
2. My mom looked directly at me.

Late vs Lately
Late is an adjective and adverb. It means not on time.

1. The train arrived late because of smog. (adverb)
2. Class teacher always comes late in our school. (adverb)

Lately is an adverb. It means recently, not long ago.

1. The two old friends hadn't seen each other lately.
2. I have been struggling with my bad habits lately.

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