How to spell: words ending in -ly, -ely and -lly
Do you ever have problems spelling words ending in -ly?
If you do, you’re not alone. Adverbs such as definitely, probably, absolutely, likely, reasonably and hopefully often cause problems when it comes to spelling. We often ask ourselves the same questions:
Is it -ly or -lly?
Do we write -ely, or just -ly?
Normally we just add -ly to an adjective to get the adverb: quick becomes quickly, dangerous becomes dangerously.
The problem is when an adjective ends in -e or -le. What do we do in such cases? Do we keep or remove the ‘e’ before adding ‘ly’?
These short and simple rules should help you.
| Forming adverbs from adjectives ending in -e, -l and -le |
| When an adjective ends in -e, we simply add ly to form the adverb: polite » politely, definite » definitely, absolute » absolutely, complete » completely. |
| Be careful when an adjective ends in -le. We remove the e and add y to form the adverb: probable » probably, possible » possibly, terrible » terribly, reasonable » reasonably. |
| Don't be confused by adjectives that end in -l. Simply add ly and the adverb will then end in -lly: hopeful » hopefully, beautiful » beautifully, helpful » helpfully, careful » carefully. |
Which words do you find difficult to spell? Let me know in the comments below.
cleyse - October 7, 2013, 12:16 pm
Its very nice to learn a little bit more English with Stuart Cook. Especially That Im Brazilian speaker.
Anonymous - October 12, 2020, 11:26 am
Then sir e should be removed before adding ly
kamal - October 13, 2013, 11:38 pm
nice site to learn
niko - December 5, 2013, 4:07 pm
You can add
“when an adjective ends -y, We change the -y to -i and add -ly to form the adverb.”
Example:
Easy => Easily
Lazy => Lazily
Michael - February 27, 2014, 3:57 am
What about words like automatic, which get turned into automatic + “ally”? Is there a rule for those?
Stuart Cook - March 2, 2014, 10:29 pm
For adjectives ending -ic, we simply add -ally to form the adverb:
economic ➝ economically,
dramatic ➝ dramatically,
classic ➝ classically, etc.
Michael - March 2, 2014, 11:19 pm
Thanks!
MOHAMED FAICAL ESSALIFI - June 8, 2021, 2:58 pm
We add double suffix al & ly (economic => economical => economically) and not add ally 🙂
Anonymous - October 18, 2015, 2:08 pm
Thank u
Anonymous - April 21, 2023, 2:23 pm
What about
True. Truly??
Eli - November 13, 2014, 1:53 pm
What about words that end -lly (eg: tally, jolly) and words that end -lley (eg: valley, trolley): is there a rule to help decide whether it should be -lly or -lley?
Richard Coe - July 1, 2016, 1:18 pm
These are nouns, so doesn’t apply.
Jules - April 27, 2015, 9:34 am
Clear and helpful, thanks for this great site.
For Eli
Eli this is a discussion about changing adjectives to adverbs so from your examples that would just be “jolly” (the nouns valley and trolley follow the usual rules for nouns ending in ey – just add s)
You’re right Eli “jollily or sillily ” would be difficult to say so we avoid it .
(You can say “It was done in a silly/jolly way” if you must describe an action using these kinds of adjectives)
Anonymous - September 19, 2015, 5:21 am
Please how about a words like absolutely?
Anonymous - October 8, 2015, 4:38 am
Absolutely is already an adverb. The adjective is absolute
Anonymous - November 28, 2015, 7:00 pm
Would there be a situation where an adverb would end in ley rather than ely?
Thanks
Jane
flossy010 - January 23, 2016, 2:18 pm
I like your website and it is very helpful
Anonymous - January 11, 2017, 11:35 pm
But what about basic = basic’al’ly
ena - June 5, 2018, 12:16 am
See above the rule for adjectives ending in -ic.
sherdeis - May 14, 2017, 10:17 am
Rule for words ending in double-vowel then ?
E.g. shortsounding wool becomes wolly, long-sounding cool becomes coolly but long-sounding steel becomes steely.
Gursimran - April 15, 2018, 9:53 pm
Why Truly not truely?
simranjit kaur - May 25, 2019, 1:16 am
it is actually True, so basically we cancel -e and add + ly (truly). Wallahhhh aghhh, thank you so much this is life for me I always have trouble spelling these stuff.
Siham Fayez Armache - October 9, 2018, 6:11 pm
What about unnecessary?
Loveleen - December 23, 2018, 3:48 pm
Thank you so much, this site really help me a lot. since I was very perplexed about spelling.
Anonymous - July 7, 2019, 4:40 pm
Thanks for your efforts…It helps me a lot and clear almost my all doubts regarding adverbs with ly and lly 🙂
Maryam - August 1, 2019, 6:01 pm
It was useful. I always have some problems with ly or lly. Thanks a lot.
Stanislav Davydovskyi - April 10, 2020, 2:37 pm
How about the word “fortunate”? Why is it not fortunatly?
John Wangai - September 19, 2022, 5:04 pm
Good to keep learning. Mine is a reminder. Thanks.