Imagine
two American students are talking outside of their school. Let’s listen to the
imaginary conversation:
A:
Today is going slow.
B:
Yeah. I guess we should study for our grammar test.
A:
That sounds like a terrible idea.
B:
Yeah, but if we don't study, we won't do
good on the test.
A:
Fine. Let's go study our notes quick. Then we can play video games.
These
bad students may hate grammar, but they just taught you some common grammatical
structures in conversational American English.
In
today's report, we will study how conversational grammar differs from written
and formal grammatical structures.
We
will show you how some Americans use adjectives and adverbs in casual conversation.
Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives
are words that give information about nouns. They generally appear before
nouns, although they also appear after linking verbs.
Here
are two examples:
You
are a good student. Learning English is fun.
In
the two example sentences, the words "good" and "fun" are
adjectives. They are telling you something about a noun.
Adverbs
are often used to modify adjectives
or verbs. They give information about reason, manner, time, and so on.
For
example, the adverb loudly appears
in this sentence:
We
sang loudly.
The
adverb loudly modifies the past tense verb, sang.
It tells about the way in which the subject, we, sang. Adverbs often have an –ly ending, but there are many that do
not. You can read more about adverbs in past Everyday Grammar stories.
Conversation:
Let's
think back to the conversation we heard at the beginning of the story:
A:
Today is going slow.
B:
Yeah. I guess we should study for our grammar test.
A:
That sounds like a terrible idea.
B:
Yeah, but if we don't study, we won't do
good on the test.
A:
Fine. Let's go study our notes quick. Then we can play videogames.
Notice
that the words are used differently from what might be taught in an English
class.
In
casual conversation, Americans often use adjective forms in place of adverbs.
They may use adjective forms to modify verbs.
For
example, the students use good – a
word that is normally an adjective - as an adverb. One student says "we
won't do
good on the test."
In
writing and in formal conversation, Americans generally do not use the word
"good" this way. Instead, they use the word well.
In formal writing or speaking, you would be more likely to see or hear the
sentence "we won't do well on the test."
Americans
also may use an adverb but choose not to say an –ly ending.
For
example, the student says "today is going slow," instead of
"today is going slowly." You would be more likely to read
"slowly" in academic writing,
write Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber, two English grammar experts.
Not necessarily slang, not
necessarily impolite
These
grammatical structures are not necessarily slang. They are not necessarily impolite,
either. You might hear some of these structures in a restaurant, at a job fair,
or even at work.
For
example, a boss might tell an employee "We need to do this quick,"
about a project that must be completed quickly.
This
is the same pattern that
the students used in their conversation.
Conrad
and Biber say that in formal speech and writing, adjective forms are almost
never used to modify verbs. In addition, adverbs with –ly endings are more common in writing –
particularly in academic and news writing.*
What can you do?
The
good news is this: we are not asking you to memorize any
of the patterns we have talked about today.
What
we hope to do is show you that the grammatical patterns in conversation do not
always match the patterns used in formal writing or speech. There is more flexibility in casual speech.
Understanding
this idea will help you understand Americans when they speak, and it will help
you sound more natural when you speak to Americans.
You
might also be pleased to know that Americans will not judge you severely if you
use an adjective in place of an adverb. In fact, they probably would do the
same!
I'm
Jill Robbins.
And
I'm John Russell.
John Russell wrote this story for
Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
If you would like to read more about
adverbs, you might want to try these two resources:
Words
in This Story
conversation – n. an
informal talk involving two people or a small group of people
formal – adj. suitable
for serious or official speech and writing
casual – adj. not
formal
modify –
v. grammar: to limit or describe the meaning of (a word or group of words)
manner – n. the
way that something is done or happens
academic – adj. of
or relating to schools and education
slang – n. words that
are not considered part of the standard vocabulary of a language and that are
used very informally in speech especially by a particular group of people
impolite – adj. not
polite
pattern – n. the regular
and repeated way in which something happens or is done
memorize – v. to learn
(something) so well that you are able to remember it perfectly
flexibility – n. able
to change or to do different things