This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2444, Grammar That Breaks the Rules, Part 1, Adjectives That End in L -Y.
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is every word that ends in ly an adverb nope today in the first installment of this three -part series we share exceptions to this english grammar rule so that you can avoid this common pitfall do you ever freeze up in conversation even when you know the words you pause correct yourself and suddenly your confidence disappears you're not alone at the b1 level many english learners struggle with fluency not just vocabulary that's why we created our b1 english fluency course now with new opportunities to get immediate and unlimited AI pronunciation feedback to help you speak naturally without overthinking
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Hello, Michelle. How are you?
I'm good, Aubrey. How are you today?
I'm happy to see you.
Yes, you too. Lindsay is out this week, but Michelle and I are excited to bring you some some fun episodes.
I'm curious, Michelle, to start us out here, do you feel like you're a pretty chill person?
I think I am chill in the way of like, I don't get really angry at people, or I don't let like too much get me upset in that way.
But I do think I'm nervous.
So I don't know if that counts.
It's interesting. It depends on how you think about this word chill, right?
Right. People who do get angry easily or easily frustrated, they'll say I have no chill because I'm not super chill.
But I would say you're definitely a chill person based on my interactions with you.
But I think you're chill, too.
I think so. Yeah. Pretty laid back.
Right. This is kind of slang to mean laid back, easygoing.
We'll say chill. But it's true.
If you get nervous easily, if you worry a lot, you might feel like you're not very chill.
Right. Right. But you might put put off a different vibe than what you're actually feeling, which is funny.
Exactly. So the reason we're talking about chill in our Q &A, a student was talking about this word chill, right?
They said, I know I can use chill to describe someone as laid back.
And then they said, is the adverb chilly?
They said, I feel like I can add L -Y to any word pretty much and it becomes an adverb.
And it was an interesting discussion because unfortunately, no, that's It's not true.
If you learned that rule, add ly to an adjective and it becomes an adverb.
That's not always the case.
So, for example, a lot of adjectives, well, the words that do follow the rules, first of all, because this is common, right?
An adjective like soft, if we add ly, yes, that's the adverb, softly.
Or slow, we add ly, slowly.
What's another one, Michelle?
Warm and warmly. So that would be to form the adverb.
Right, exactly. But again, Aubrey, as you said, it's not always the case.
And if you think of this as just this hard and fast grammar rule, you're going to find yourself in trouble because it's not always that way.
Right, Aubrey? Exactly right.
So we're going to do a three part series here.
Make sure that you follow right here on the All Ears English podcast so you don't miss any of them.
Today in part one, one, we're talking about adjectives that we add L -Y and it becomes another adjective instead of an adverb.
And then part two, we're talking about nouns that we add L -Y and they become an adjective.
I know, so tricky. And then part three, we're talking about adjectives that do become an adverb when we add L -Y, but with an entirely new meaning, like an unexpected meaning, like hard and hardly lay these words.
Yeah. So this is going to be a great series.
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And so useful, because I'm sure these things can be very, very confusing if you just hear L -Y as adverb.
And then, yeah, it's just it's unfortunately it's not that simple.
Exactly right. English is always playing tricks on us.
And this can hurt our connections.
If we're taking something and thinking it's a hard and fast rule, there are no exceptions.
Then when we hear something that it sounds like a mistake it might throw us off or if we're concerned about something.
So, it always helps to know these details, to know a lot of these exceptions so that you recognize that this is something we don't need to stress out about.
Exactly. All right.
So, should we talk about chill?
Yeah. So, first, right, often when we add ly to an adjective, it remains an adjective, but with a different meaning.
So, chill is tricky because, of course, we have the meaning of something being like cool, especially the verb, like I'm going to chill something in the fridge means I'm going to cool it down.
So then we have the adjective chilly, which means something is cold.
We'll usually use this to describe weather as chilly.
But what makes this especially tricky is that slang meaning that chill also can mean relaxed or calm, right?
Right, right, right, right.
So, for example, he's such a chill guy, nothing bothers him.
Yes, but when we add L -Y, this does not become an adverb.
It actually has nothing really related to being laid back, but it also has two interesting meanings.
The first one I shared, if it's weather, right?
It's getting chilly outside, grab a sweater.
And we'll also describe personalities as chilly.
Do you know anyone who's chilly?
Hmm. There are people who I, you sometimes wonder if they're chilly or if maybe you just don't know them.
Like sometimes you, somebody might give off a certain impression, but then you have to realize it might not actually be the reality, right?
Right. We also use cold to describe people, right?
Someone might come off as cold or chilly if they're not extremely friendly or maybe their facial expressions aren't extremely friendly, but that's a good point, Michelle, that this can actually hurt connection if you assume someone is cold, chilly, unfriendly when that's just their face.
And if you start a conversation, you might find that they're super warm and friendly.
Yeah, exactly. All right.
So should we do another one?
Yeah, we're going to share a few of the most common examples here of similar words where it's an adjective without L -Y, and then we add L -Y and it's a new meaning, but still an adjective.
So what's our first one, Michelle?
Okay, so we have sick.
Okay, so sick, this is an adjective to mean maybe ill or nauseated.
So I felt sick after that roller coaster.
Actually, Aubrey, recently I took my daughter to like a little kids amusement park and they had the teacups type, one of those types of rides.
And then I went on one of them and I was okay.
And the second one, there was just this point in the ride where I felt, I don't like this.
But I was okay. But, yeah.
And I don't know about you, but when that happens to me, I'm, like, done for a while.
If I feel sick after the teacups, it's going to be hours before I feel like going on another ride.
Yeah, yeah. We also have slang for this word, right?
That's right. It also means something is really cool or impressive.
Like you might say, oh, that was sick.
I've never been able to backflip like that.
if someone does a cool backflip.
So this is slang as well, which makes it doubly tricky.
Sometimes you're not sure you have to know the context to know what is meant.
Yes. Aubrey, do you use sick as slang?
I do sometimes. Yeah.
If one of my kids will do like a fun trick in the pool, I might say like, oh, sick.
That was sick. My kids say it a lot.
It is more, I feel like slang used by the younger younger generations more often?
That might be a word that I'll say it and my kids are like, mom, you're too old to say that word. Well, Dan says sick a lot.
I don't say it. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with it, but it makes me laugh when he says it for some reason.
But this is interesting.
If you add L -Y, it does not become an adverb like you might assume, right it's still an adjective that means looking weak or unhealthy you might say their daughter was a sickly child you'll often especially see this in like older books that's what I was here in older it's a little bit outdated to call someone sickly we would probably just say they look ill they look like they don't feel well exactly yeah I agree with that but interestingly you cannot so So this other meaning that Dan says a lot when we say something's cool, it's sick.
We do not add an L -Y to describe how someone does that.
We don't use it as an adverb to be like, he did that sickly.
No, we don't do that.
Just sick. Just sick.
Let's move on to dead.
Nice. So dead as an adjective, of course, means no longer alive or functioning.
functioning we often use this to describe like technology you might say the phone battery is completely dead it's not functioning and functioning at all exactly exactly oh i hate that um right that happens to the best of us i i need to get one of those mobile chargers where if i'm out and about i can just attach it to my phone to get it to power back on yeah yeah Yeah, I also need that because I run into trouble sometimes.
But when you add L -Y, again, it doesn't become an adverb.
It still can be, it's still an adjective.
So deadly is able to cause death or extremely serious.
So they were exposed to a deadly poison.
Uh -oh, that would be bad.
Exactly right. This is not an adverb.
It's another adjective with a similar meaning.
But yeah, it means that it is extremely serious, could be deadly, could have disastrous results.
Maybe like a ski slope, a really dangerous ski hill could be described as deadly, especially.
And this is pretty literal.
We don't really use this to exaggerate or describe something that's not actually deadly as just extremely, like we really just use this if it really is that dangerous that you could die.
or actually we also sometimes say there's death and deathly right um so like I'm deathly afraid of spiders or something like yes those are very similar exactly right so death but then also deathly again um an adjective right to describe um how extreme it is yes imagine this you're in charge of hiring at your company and you just realized that your business needed to hire someone yesterday.
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All right let's move on to live and lively.
So live is an adjective that means two things either happening in real time, right?
A live recording, a live video stream, or also full of energy.
And often we'll say like a live wire, so this is like wiring going through a house that has electricity going through it.
But we also use this metaphorically to describe like a party as live right you have live oh so like for example we're watching a live broadcast or like live streaming right um so sorry i lost my place for just a second yes and now we have lively so again we add the ly and it's an adjective and this means full of life and energy so the party was very lively and fun right you you could describe a person as like oh i love she has such a lively personality right absolutely if they're very energetic and fun to be around right but this i can definitely see how this could be tricky if you see the word
lively and assume it's an adverb because so many adverbs end in ly but it's not it's an adjective for all All of these today we add L -Y and it's another adjective.
I'm so glad that we are learning this because this is really important, right?
This is what is really going to help our listeners connect with others more confidently, right?
Take out a little bit more of the guesswork because this is one of those gray sticky areas that could really trip people up.
So I'm so glad that you're bringing this to us, Aubrey.
Yes, absolutely, right?
right? We don't want you to be confused by English.
It can be confusing if you're just seeing adjectives that end in LY and we don't understand why, or we're assuming it's an adverb.
So I'm glad we're able to clear this up, share some of the most common words we use that LY still is an adjective.
Let's do a role play here, Michelle.
Okay, awesome. So I like this.
We are walking in a park.
Yeah, I'll start us out.
Oh man, it's chilly out here.
I kind of love it. The air is fresh.
The vibe is chill. Yeah, well, it helps that you're wearing like five layers.
I bet I look sickly shivering like this.
Oh, you do look a little pale.
Are you actually sick?
I'm just tired. I was up all night watching that live nature documentary.
You know, the one with the wolves?
Oh, yeah. I watched part of it.
It gave me a clear idea of how deadly it would be to live in the Arctic.
A lot of time just waiting for something to happen, though.
not exactly lively, huh?
Exactly. It was beautiful, but slow.
I drifted off halfway through and now I feel half dead.
You're like so tired trying to hang out with a friend, but you didn't sleep well.
It's so tough. I just need a nap.
Oh my gosh. I've been needing more naps recently.
That's cause you have small children when they nap.
NAP. Yeah, they don't nap.
So, okay, awesome. So you said, oh man, it's chilly out there.
So, right, there's a little bit of a breeze, a little bit cold, right?
Exactly. So I'm not talking about a person who is acting chilly.
This is the weather, right?
I'm just describing the weather is a little bit cool, a little bit cold.
It's chilly out here.
And then you said, I love it.
The air is fresh. the vibe is chill.
So we describe people as chill, having chill, and we'll also describe a vibe as chill, right?
If it's just relaxed and calm.
Yeah, exactly. And then you said, I bet I look sickly shivering like this.
So again, you look like you're feeling sick.
We already mentioned we're using this for the role play to show you how it works.
But again, you might see this more or written in older books or even in a movie about a time in the past, right?
You probably wouldn't say this very frequently, but it's good to know.
Yeah, it's a little bit outdated for sure.
You might hear it and it's good to know what it means, but there are other ways we would say this instead.
And we just might say, I bet I look sick.
I bet I look pale, however you say it.
Or I bet I look like I'm not feeling well, if you're there shivering.
Exactly. And then you said you do I do look a little pale.
Are you actually sick?
Right. So, you're asking me if I actually don't feel well.
And then you said, I'm just tired.
I was up all night watching that live nature documentary.
So, it's being broadcast. It was live.
Exactly right. Someone's filming animals live and you're able to watch like a live streaming of that.
And then you said, oh yeah, I watched part of it.
It gave me a clear idea of how deadly it would be to live in the Arctic.
So this means like your life could be at risk for the animals or anyone living in the Arctic, that it's a dangerous place, we would call it deadly.
Yep, exactly. And then you said, it was beautiful, but slow.
I drifted off halfway through and now I feel half dead.
So you feel very tired, basically.
Right. And this is interesting.
This is not literal, right?
We use this metaphorically to say that we don't feel well.
I feel dead. I feel half dead.
of course you don't realize, I mean, you can't really feel dead, but we use this to exaggerate how badly we feel.
It's definitely an exaggeration.
Um, well, Aubrey, this is great.
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the episodes in this series.
This is going to be so helpful and a lot of fun and very interesting because this is not something that you're going to see in a textbook.
I think in the textbook, it's going to show you, oh, L Y adverb, right?
Exactly. Right. add L -Y to a word, it becomes an adverb.
And even native English speakers, I think, make this mistake.
You see L -Y at the end of a word, you're going to assume adverb.
It's really good to know the exceptions, to know when this isn't the case so that you don't fall for these pitfalls.
Absolutely. All right.
I love it. Well, Aubrey, it was nice hanging out with you today.
And thanks for bringing all of this really important information to us, guys.
This is going to be super useful.
And Aubrey, I'll see you next time.
Yes. Awesome. be sure to hit follow for the rest of the series, guys.
I'll see you next time.
All right, bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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