-ly

See also ly, LY, and .ly

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: lē, IPA: /li/, X-SAMPA: /li/

Etymology 1

From Middle English -ly, -li, -lich, from Old English -līċ, from Proto-Germanic *-līkaz (“having the body or form of”), from *līką (“body”) (whence lich). Cognate with Dutch -lijk, German -lich and Swedish -lig, and with English -like (from Proto-Germanic *līka-).

Suffix

-ly

1. Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "like or characteristic of what is denoted by the noun".

   friendly

Translations

used to form adjectives from nouns

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (similar function, but used in different ways) 的 (cmn) (de)

• Dutch: -achtig (nl), -lijk (nl), -ig (nl)
• Esperanto: -a (eo)
• Finnish: -mainen (fi)
• French: -ment (fr)
• Galician: -mente (gl)
• German: -erweise (de)
• Icelandic: -lega (is)

• Interlingua: -mente (ia)
• Italian: -mente (it)
• Latin: -e (la), -iter (la)
• Portuguese: -mente (pt)
• Russian: -ский (ru) (-skij) (adjective, phonetic changes and additions occur), -ски (ru) (-ski) (adverb)
• Serbo-Croatian: -ně (sh)
• Spanish: -mente (es)
• Swedish: -aktig (sv), -artad (sv), -lig (sv), -isk (sv)

Synonyms

• -ish
• -like
• -ous
• -y

Etymology 2

From Old English -līċe.

Suffix

-ly

1. Used to form adverbs from adjectives.

   suddenly

Usage notes

In casual usage, -ly is sometimes omitted from adverbs (e.g., badly becomes bad). This is proscribed (considered improper grammar) by many: “I want it badly.” being preferred to “I want it bad.”, for example.

Various sound changes and spelling changes occur for -ly:

• If an adjective ends with the letter y, it changes into i before adding the suffix (e.g. ready, readily).
• If an adjective ends with ble, these euphonically blend to bly, due to difficulty of pronouncing *blely. Examples include -ably and -ibly, but also feebly, nimbly, and nobly, among others.

Derived terms

• -ally

Translations

used to form adverbs from adjectives

• Armenian: -բար (hy) (-bar), -որեն (hy) (-oren)
• Catalan: -ment (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (similar function, but used in different ways) 地 (cmn) (de)

• Dutch: (the adverb is usually the same as the adjective: no change in form)
• Esperanto: -e (eo)
• Finnish: -sti (fi)
• French: -ment (fr)
• Galician: -mente (gl)
• German: -erweise (de), (usually adverbs equal lemma adjective forms with no endings, e.g. schwach - adv./adj.)
• Greek: -ά (el) (-á), -ώς (el) (-ós) (each replacing the final syllable of the adjective)
• Icelandic: -lega (is)
• Italian: -mente (it)

• Japanese: ...く (ja) (-ku) (い-adjectives drop い, add く), ...に (ja) (-ni) (な-adjectives drop な, add に)
• Latin: -ē (la), -iter (la)
• Latvian: -i (lv)
• Lithuanian: -i (lt)
• Navajo: -go
• Neapolitan: -mente
• Polish: -o (pl)
• Portuguese: -mente (pt)
• Russian: -о (ru) (-o), -е (ru) (-(j)e), по-... -ски (ru) (po-...-ski) (forming adverbs from -ский adjectives), -ски (ru) (-ski)
• Spanish: -mente (es)
• Swedish: -t (sv), -en (sv), -ligen (sv), -vis (sv)

See also

[+] English words suffixed with -ly

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Middle English

Etymology

Old English, see above

Suffix

-ly

1. -ly (suffix used to form adverbs)