Friendly - adjective and adverb?

I think, regardless of whether it is "right" or "wrong," the word "friendly" used as an adverb is awkward and "friendlily" can't even stand up for drunkenness. Therefore recast the sentence to avoid the issue.

2 votes Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

i saw it

0 vote Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

I found "friendlily" is also accepted as standard.

1 vote Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

It sounds a little stupid to me and other native speakers, because we know "friendly" foremost as an adjective. However, no other adverb form of the word exists, and it is accepted as an adverb as standard English, although I don't like it. Signs all over Texas say "Drive Friendly".

1 vote Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

While it is common to form adverbs by adding "-ly" to adjectives, there are plenty of adjectives that end in "-ly", usually by adding it to nouns: lovely, shapely, orderly, homely, etc. There are also examples of other words that function as both, especially adverbs of frequency. Hourly can be used as both an adverb and an adjective. So can daily,weekly, monthly, etc.

2 votes Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

adjectif + ly =an adverb so friendly is an adverb so friend+ly=adverb and friend is a noun so friendly it can't be an adverb but it is also a noun

1 vote Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

in my opinion friendly is an adjectif but what is the adverb from this adjectif

3 votes Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

Most dictionaries I have consulted list 'friendly' as a noun, an adjective, and an adverb. It is not listed as a noun in my older Merriam-Webster. The noun usage I suspect is most recent, as in: "The explorers encountered a friendly, whom they engaged as their guide." It has the distinct ring of slang, and old slang at that. It is rarely heard anymore outside of bad movie dialog.

It is even more uncommon to find 'friendly' used as an adverb. A sentence like "They treated her friendly" sounds odd, even colloquial. It is not incorrect, but it will catch the reader's or listener's attention, and needs to be explained by, or supported by, its context. Such usage should be reserved for written dialog or for the spoken word.

Nor would I advise "amicably" as a substitute adverb. To say "The diplomatic meeting ended amicably" may be taken to mean a lack of dispute, rather than any feeling of warmth between the participants. Stick to 'friendly' as an adjective, as in "friendly advice."

3 votes Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

I just looked up if friendly could ever be used as an adverb because I was observing a teacher who said it could be. I know of no such usage in modern English. Interestingly enough, Webster's actually listed the adverb, "friendlily." I have never heard of that word in my life. I guess it is legal, but it is not normal.

4 votes Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

I have often thought we needed the word friendlily for in a friendly manner. Oh well....

2 votes Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse

Does the ABBYY Lingvo Dictionary date its examples?

The most recent example in the OED of "friendly" used as an adverb is from 1869. It also has "The natives used us friendly and with kindness," but that is from 1807.

I cannot think of a decent example of how one might use "friendly" as an adverb in <em>modern English</em>. I believe it is an obsolete usage. To a modern English speaker it will sound wrong, or at the least very archaic.

As you say, "amicably" is a perfectly good adverb with essentially the same meaning, or youcan say "in a friendly way." Either of those are good, modern English.

ABBYY appears to be based in Moscow.

3 votes Vote!  •  URL to this comment  •  Report Abuse