Talk:importantly
I have for a long time heard that "importantly" was a violation of the rules: that "importantly" had to do with someone who wanted to pretend to be important.[1]
"When speakers are trying to impress audiences with their rhetoric, they often seem to feel that the extra syllable in "importantly" lends weight to their remarks: "and more importantly, I have an abiding love for the American people." However, these pompous speakers are wrong. It is rarely correct to use this form of the phrase because it is seldom adverbial in intention. Say “more important" instead. The same applies to "most importantly"; it should be “most important. "[2]
Rghollenbeck 20:26, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
- ^ Robert MacNiel, the Story of English (video from Public Broadcasting).
- ^ http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/importantly.html
In my editing, I accidentally deleted the following:
- (deprecated template usage) important (adjective) + (deprecated template usage) -ly (suffixed used to form regular adverbs). Where's the problem? Don't believe everything you read. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:39, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
Sorry, Mglovesfun. Please replace your reply. I didn't mean do destroy anything you said. I only have this much.
sentence-modifying adverb[edit]
Today, MORE IMPORTANTLY is the more common, even though some object to its use on the grounds that MORE IMPORTANT is an elliptical form of "What is more important" and that the adverb IMPORTANTLY could not occur in such a construction. MORE IMPORTANTLY probably developed by analogy with other sentence-modifying adverbs, as curiously, fortunately, and regrettably. https://www.wordreference.com/definition/important