
Could We Just Lose the Adverb (Already)? - dnetesn
http://www.vulture.com/2016/05/could-we-just-lose-the-adverb-already.html
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Disruptive_Dave
I'm re-reading Stephen King's "On Writing" right now and he dedicates some of
the initial portions of his advice section to anti-adverb rants. "The adverb
is not your friend." I catch myself using them more often than I should. His
take is that the context around whatever statement you've inserted an adverb
into should already tell the story that adverb was inserted to tell.

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open-source-ux
This was a difficult article to read, but I hope we don't lose the adverb.

I hope we don't lose prepositions either but I have noticed a point of
divergence between British and American English relating to this.

In American English it's common to say _a couple weeks ago_. In British
English you would say: _a couple of weeks ago_.

Or someone in the US might say _write me_ , whereas in the UK you'd say _write
to me_. I think this is a recent change in American English? Or am I
completely wrong and this has always been part of American English?

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danieltillett
Or in Australian English where _a couple of weeks ago_ becomes _a cupala weeks
ago_.

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jdmichal
That's just eliding the 'f' sound to make it flow better. It's basically "a
couple o' weeks ago".

/eɪ kʌ.pl̩ ʌ wiks ʌ.go/

And yes, "ou", "o" and "a" all render to /ʌ/ in my dialect. Yay English!

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Nacraile
I found this fairly awkward to read. Possibly that was the point, in which
case it was well made. Otherwise, I would consider the author to be
demonstrably unqualified to offer advice on writing style.

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couldwejust
> I found this read awkward. The writing does not demonstrate the
> qualification to offer advice on writing style. If that was supposed it is
> good.

Fixed, because your comment on quality does not convince me with its quality.

edit: See how that slightly changed the meaning to be more clear, but perhaps
not what you meant? And awkward looks arkward.

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pjlegato
There's nothing inherently wrong with adverbs. They're just a tool.

Like all tools, they can certainly be misused and inappropriately applied by
people who don't know how or when to use them. That doesn't mean they're a bad
tool.

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DrScump
I think he calls "yesterday" an adverb _erroneously_.

