Flat Adverbs: How To Replace Them with Examples and Explanations
Many of us are prone to write the same way as we speak and at times it becomes so prosaic to read that the reader loses interest completely regardless of the content. If you are using adverbs indiscriminately while describing stuff to your friends and family, you are likely using them the same way when you are jotting the same on paper.
Well, the use of adverbs is not incorrect at all, otherwise, they wouldn’t have existed. But at times, there are numerous descriptive words that can be used for getting your point across rather than using mundane flat adverbs. If you have ever come across any manuscript that lacks the much-desired sass, it could be the abundance of flat adverbs that poses to be the culprit.
UNDERSTANDING FLAT ADVERBS
While we have entirely shifted the blame on flat adverbs in terms of the debilitating quality of the content, it’s important to note what are flat adverbs and how can we get rid of them without damaging the essence of the write-up. Once you learn to spot adverbs in the sentences you will see that there are tons of these awful words. The reason they become awful is that we tend to misuse them.
Adverbs are descriptive words that are used for modifying adjectives, verbs, or even another adverb. Sometimes, they also qualify for a complete sentence. But flat adverbs especially are those that end with -ly and modify verbs. Let’s consider an example:
ama walked STEALTHILY to the garden.’
Here the adverb ‘stealthily’ is describing how the subject, Rama walked. It takes no effort to imagine the way he walked and with the use of the adverb, it’s understandable that he is not wanting to draw attention towards himself.
The first step in replacing the flat adverb in this case is not to allow the reader to think or assume how the subject is performing the action. So you can aim to be a bit more specific. This will help remove the fluff word, the adverb in this case. Consider the verb and the adverb in the sentence which are _walking_ and _stealthily_ respectively. Now you have to replace the same with another strong new verb. For instance, you can consider a word like ‘tiptoed’ which means to walk quietly without making any noise.
Incorporating these little changes can alter the face of your writing completely. It will also bring down unwanted fluff in the sentences. As a writer, you will want to employ words with a power that will have just the opposite impact if you fluff them with flat adverbs.
CUTTING OFF REDUNDANT ADVERBS
When writing something, you have to search for redundant adverbs, that is to say, they are stating something that’s already mentioned. (Just as it is done here!) Let’s take a look at some examples:
Amy smiled HAPPILY.
He ran away QUICKLY.
Roger shouted ANGRILY.
The words ‘happily’, ‘quickly’, and ‘angrily’ are not adding any critical value to the sentences. When we see that Amy is grinning or someone ran away or Roger shouting – we don’t need any adverb to tell us how the action is performed. These adverbs can be cut off safely from their respective sentences without changing the meaning or losing any value of the sentences.
ADVERBS USED IN DIALOGUES
When writing dialogues, you should focus on the tags to check if your characters are speaking adverbially! For example,
Ron asked INNOCENTLY, “Where will you go?”
“Get me some jacket potatoes,” she said EXCITEDLY.
Many of us have this habit of bringing flat adverbs when writing dialogues. You got to be a bit careful since they are hardly required to complete the sentences. Rather than adding anything to your manuscript, they will create wordiness. If the reader is not able to understand that your character is innocent or excited, you need to revise your writing or employ some other style rather than introducing a flat adverb.
When you use these adverbs in the right way, dialogues with adverbs can give meaning to the writing. Let’s see one example:
“I wouldn’t have gone to such an extent, Mr. John,” said the President, KINDLY.
“I wouldn’t have gone to such an extent, Mr. John,” said the President.
The second sentence is the same as the flat adverb dropped. The meaning and tone change completely, and it may indicate a threatening tone while the first one is congruent to any doctor’s character: kindness. If you want to omit the word ‘kindly’ and imbue the same meaning, then you have to include a lot of words compared to using a single adverb. In these situations, an adverb can take care of a lot of things when it comes to characterization. But make sure you are not overusing them like the examples given above.
RISK OF OVERUSING INTENSIFIERS
As is already mentioned, intensifying adverbs are used so frequently that you aren’t even mindful when using them. The best practice here is to count the number of flat adverbs that you have used in a paragraph. If you find that you have used the word ‘really’ 5-6 times in a paragraph, you have to bring it down to one. Even though you find these words to be _extremely_ useful or _really_ great, your readers are going to find them _awfully_ bad. So be ruthless when reducing their usage in your writing.
CONCLUSION
Adverbs and their use is something that we all have learned in elementary school. But with the passage of time and your practice in English writing, you will realize that they are much more complicated than the fundamentals taught to us. While the language was overwhelmed with a steep use of these bare adverbs in the past, its use has now dwindled.
When you wish to replace flat adverbs in your writing, you need to first understand their meaning along with their usage. So the best thing you can do in this regard is to check the same in a dictionary. This will intimidate you from using these unnecessary words and bring back the jazz to your writing.