Nervous versus Nervously

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello! How are you?

Thanks in advance! You make English clearer
for me.

Examples:

1.- I was so nervous!

2.- I was so nervously!

3.- I felt so nervous!

4.- I felt so nervously!

Can I always use and adverb instead
of an adjective, as
I did in my examples above, to mean the same thing? If I am wrong, what do I have to do if I
want to change an adjective for an adverb
in any sentence?

Thank you very much!

2

Adverbs modify verbs or adjectives. Therefore, your sentences, as they are written, don’t make sense with the adverb ‘nervously’. You should say: “I was/felt so nervous!”.

3

Thanks, Conchita!

Can you give me some examples, please?

Could I say then…

‘I felt nervously’?

Nervously is modifying the verb here, isn?t it?

Thanks again!

Jes?s

4

It’s funny that you should ask this, because it isn’t possible in Spanish, either. You can’t say: “me siento nerviosamente” or “estoy nerviosamente”, can you? What exactly are you trying to say?

If you have no special sentence in mind, but just want to use the adverb ‘nervously’ at all costs, you can say, for example: I felt nervously shy or I nervously felt the cloth before buying it.

5

Oh, my god! No, no… I can?t say “Estoy
nerviosamente” in Spanish. That?s
why I asked it. It sounded quite strange
to me in English. I wanted
to know how to use the adverbs ended
in ‘ly’.

Ex: He honestly said he didn?t want
to go out with her anymore.
(Modifying a verb) Right?

Ex: Is that grammatically correct?
(Modifying an adjective) Right?

Thank you very much!

6

Your first example is correct. But where’s your second example :slight_smile: ? With ‘honestly’ modifying an adjective you could say: I’m honestly sorry, for example.

7

I suppose then that ‘grammatically’
isn?t modifying the adjective ‘correct’
in my sentence, is it?

But grammatically is an adverb, not?

Example: “Is it grammatically correct?”

Thanks!

8

Actually, ‘gramatically’ does modify the adjective ‘correct’ and it is an adverb.

As for feel + adjective, you should treat it as an exception to a general rule. Other verbs in the same category are taste, smell, look and some others.

So we say:
He looks nice. Not: nicely
The flower smells beutiful. Not: beatifully

I don’t want to complicate this, so I won’t go into minute detail about it. I hope this will do.