WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Grammar Minute: "She laughed softly" or "she softly laughed?"

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Weirdly put. Put weirdly? Find out on today's episode of Grammar Minute!

Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we're saving the English language 60 seconds at a time. I'm Lauren Smith, and I recently came across this grammar question posted in a forum. Is it proper to say, she laughed softly, or she softly laughed? For one-word verbs that don't have objects, also called intransitive verbs, you can theoretically put the adverb either before or after the verb, depending on what you want to emphasize. The reason why she laughed softly probably sounds correct is because putting the adverb after the verb, verb is the default. She ran quickly, she ate eagerly, and so on. If you put softly before the verb, as in she softly laughed, you're placing heavy emphasis on the adverb, something you

probably don't want to do in a sentence this short, though you might want to say something like she emphatically disagreed. That's your Grammar Minute. Visit thegrammerminut.com for more tips and tricks.