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Oct 2024
3:46pm, 14 Oct 2024
13,427 posts
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D2
Help! I'm trying to explain to a friend why I think the phrase "it fits lovely" is wrong. I think it should be it fits well or its a lovely fit but I cant satisfactorily explain why. Is it something to do with lovely as an adjective or adverb or just the wrong word?
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Oct 2024
3:51pm, 14 Oct 2024
8,949 posts
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um
Grammarly's AI sentence checker has no issue with it. But it sounds wrong to me, 'my lovely' (said in a Devon accent  )
But 'It fits beautifully' sounds far better.
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Oct 2024
3:52pm, 14 Oct 2024
8,950 posts
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um
As does your suggestion, "it's a lovely fit"
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Oct 2024
4:48pm, 14 Oct 2024
22,103 posts
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Cerrertonia
It's an adjective and you need an adverb to go with 'it fits' and English doesn't have an adverb lovely-ly. So you have to work around it by saying it fits 'beautifully' or 'in a lovely way' or the like.
The same problem exists with friendly. You can't say something friendlyly, you have say it in a friendly fashion.
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Oct 2024
4:53pm, 14 Oct 2024
6,706 posts
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paulcook
I'd have suggested both lovely and friendly could be both adjectives and adverbs. But no, just adjectives (well nouns too but that's another matter).
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Oct 2024
11:05pm, 14 Oct 2024
13,428 posts
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D2
Thank you! Thats really helpful.
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Oct 2024
11:08pm, 14 Oct 2024
13,429 posts
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D2
I'm so glad to get an answer it was really bugging me!!!!
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Oct 2024
9:14am, 18 Oct 2024
25,842 posts
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larkim
Not really a grammar question, but perhaps someone can point me at good info out there.
One thing that really confuses me in relation to non-English languages, especially those which don't use Latin script (as well as those that do) is how the accepted pronunciation of Latin letters is ignored sometimes when the native language is written down.
The two best examples I can come up with are the former Chinese leader Deng Xioping and the Irish name Naimh.
Deng clearly originates in a Chinese script, but when written in English it is Deng - and yet is pronounced "Dung". And Naimh is "Neave", yet mh is not a dipthong that exists in English with the "v" sound, and could / should so much more easily be spelled as "Neave" or something similar.
How did those counter-intuitive spellings arise when those using Latin script (often with an English background) started writing those "foreign" sounds with Latin characters?
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Oct 2024
10:13am, 18 Oct 2024
28,173 posts
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Dvorak
So you are asking why someone given an Irish name should have it spelt the
Irish way and not have it anglicized for the benefit of, well, the English? Hmm.
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Oct 2024
10:46am, 18 Oct 2024
22,117 posts
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Cerrertonia
Latin script was being used to write Irish centuries before English even existed as a language, so your question is really why didn't the Irish change their existing 1500 year old orthography to be easier for English speakers?
Irish didn't use v (or j,k,q, w, x y or z) although it does for modern loans. The mh digraph can also be pronounced like w, or it can make the preceding vowel into a diphthong. People in different parts of Ireland pronounce things differently so spelling can't possibly always be phonetic. Same in English - phonetic spelling would mean e.g Southern British speakers spelling bath differently to North Americans, Australians, Scots and Northern English speakers.
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