Working hard or hardly working?

Words that have the same adjective and adverb form can be confusing for students (e.g., I bit the hard cheese [adj], I studied hard [adv]). But what about when an adverb has two forms, such as hard and hardly? These tricky adverbs have different forms depending on the sentence position and/or meaning. Devoting a lesson to these adverbs is a great idea—it will cause less confusion when students come across them and will give students a chance to practice them. Read on for an analysis of four of the most common adverbs with two forms, and get your students to try the practice exercise at the end to test what you’ve taught them.

Close & Closely

Close

Meaning	near in space or time (Note that closely can often be used in place of close.)
Position	after a verb
Example	Don’t drive so close to the car in front of you.

Closely

Meaning	near in space or time
Position	before or after a verb (Point out to students that before a verb, only closely can be used—never close.)
Examples	They are closely related. She worked closely with me on the project.

Hard & Hardly

Hard

Meaning	with a lot of effort
Position	after a verb
Example	You’ll have to work hard if you want to impress your boss.

Hardly

Meaning	almost not at all
Position	before a verb or before a pronoun with “any‑” or “no‑”
Examples	I hardly got any work done with all the noise. Hardly anyone showed up for my party.

Late & Lately

Late

Meaning	after an expected time
Position	after a verb
Example	I slept late again, so I’m going to get in trouble with my teacher.

Lately

Meaning	recent time
Position	at the beginning or end of a sentence
Examples	Lately, I’ve been worried about my future. I’ve been worried about my future lately.

Slow & Slowly

Slow

Meaning	the opposite of fast (Note that slowly can usually be used in place of slow, but it is more common to use slow after verbs of movement. Some people object to slow being used as an adverb, but it has been in use for over four centuries, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.)
Position	after verbs of movement
Example	Go slow so that you don’t slip on the ice.

Slowly

Meaning	the opposite of fast
Position	before or after a verb (Point out to students that before a verb, only slowly can be used—never slow.)
Examples	She slowly stood up to give her presentation. She walked slowly to the front of the room.

Exercise

Questions

1. My friend arrived _______ to the party. (late / lately)
2. He worked _______ with his boss during that project. (close / closely)
3. I hate when people drive _______ on the freeway. (slow / slowly)
4. The mother told her son to stay _______ to her as they walked through the crowd. (close / closely)
5. We’ve _______ begun our presentation. (hard / hardly)
6. Have you heard from your sister _______ ? (late / lately)
7. The man _______ woke up from his nap. (slow / slowly)
8. The students have been studying _______ for weeks. (hard / hardly)

Answers

1. My friend arrived late to the party.
2. He worked closely with his boss during that project.
3. I hate when people drive slow (or slowly) on the freeway.
4. The mother told her son to stay close to her as they walked through the crowd.
5. We’ve hardly begun our presentation.
6. Have you heard from your sister lately?
7. The man slowly woke up from his nap.
8. The students have been studying hard for weeks.

Grammar & Usage Resources – Adverbs with Two Forms

Bonus Question

Can your students guess which adverbs belong in the following famous quote? Can they explain the meaning?

Are you working __________ or __________ working? (hard / hardly)

Other adverbs with two forms that you may wish to explore with your students include: fair/fairly, fine/finely, free/freely, high/highly, just/justly, most/mostly, near/nearly, pretty/prettily, right/rightly, sharp/sharply, well/goodly, wide/widely, and wrong/wrongly.

For more tips about adverbs, see my post on the 7 Adverb Patterns.