think positive vs. think positively.

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

Hi,

Please give a loot at those two sentences:

  1. Let’s try to think positive.
  2. Let’s try to think positively.

I think 1) and 2) are both right, although 1) would be used more. I think 1) is not grammatically right because think is a verb and a verb cannot be modified by adjectives like positive. However, it is widely used and that’s why we cannot say it’s wrong. What do you think?

Thanks,
sweetpumpkin

2

Dictionary doesn’t say that ‘positive’ is an adverb but it says ‘positive’ is ‘the primary form of an adjective or adverb’. What is the primary form?

Am I thinking ‘positive’ (or ‘positively’) here? :slight_smile:

3

I think you’re right. “Positively” would be more logical because it must be an adverb. However, it is a “fashionable” expression, so that those who use it probably use it colloquially, where grammar is not very strict. To “think positive” is said often indeed.

4

Positive as the “primary form of an adjective or adverb” is a technical term of linguistics.

“Great” is called the positive of great, the “normal form” of it.
“Greater” = comparative.
“Greatest” = superlative.