Last week the Grammar Guru question was: Which two are correct?
- Many emails are written needlessly. (100%, 9 Votes) = correct
- Many emails are needless. (67%, 6 Votes) = correct
- Many emails are written needless. (0%, 0 Votes) = incorrect
- Many emails are needlessly. (0%, 0 Votes) = incorrect
Why didn’t everybody choose “Many emails are needless,” the shorter version? I think it’s because the verb “to be” takes adjectives, not adverbs, which is tricky! Other verbs take adverbs, even when they are in the passive, like here.
A classic drill: Take a list of verbs and adverbs that go together: “compete successfully; laugh loudly; sleep soundly” and make a sentence related to them. Then turn the verb into a noun, and the adverb into an adjective, so: “successful competition/competitors; a loud laugh; sound sleep”, and rephrase the sentence.
This week’s question again invites discussion. It’s about word order. Which one sounds better?