The innocuous little adverb was originally used to mean "in fact" - "That tree is actually a fir, not a pine." Or to express surprise or incredulity - "I actually won the lottery!" (Both examples from ...

Aspiring science-fiction authors receive one piece of advice above all others: Forsake the adverb, the killer of prose. It’s terribly, awfully, horrendously important. But why? Really, adverbs aren’t ...

One of the most common questions I get is: Which is correct: X or Y? The X and Y don’t matter much. They change from email to email. Sometimes they’re accompanied by a Z or even an A, B and C. But the ...

Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely: What Is an Adverb? by Brian Cleary, illus. by Brian Gable, is the newest entry in the Words Are Categorical series. A playful rhyming text (""Adverbs tell us when and how.