英语语法：179 How to Eliminate Adverbs

Today, Bonnie Trenga will help us decide whether adverbs are useful or evil.
No one likes feeling useless, but adverbs might justifiably¹ feel that way. Adverbs find themselves much maligned² because they're often redundant³ or awkwardly placed. Master writer Stephen King complains about them in his book On Writing, saying, “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops” (1), but he doesn’t shout it loudly. He likens adverbs to dandelions. When one unwanted weed sprouts⁴ up, more follow.
How to Use Adverbs
It’s not that I don’t like adverbs; they modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and whole sentences—sometimes smashingly so. Let’s see some examples. The adverb “quickly” could modify the verb “to run,” as in “A tiger! Run quickly!” The adverb “overly” could modify the adjective “sensitive” if you wanted to describe an “overly sensitive young man.” If you wanted to criticize someone’s cooking and use an adverb to modify your entire complaint, you might say, “Clearly, you didn’t read the recipe.”
So, adverbs have their place, but often writers can improve their writing by pruning⁵ adverbs.
How to Cut Adverbs
Let’s quickly deal with adverbs you can easily cut: repetitive adverbs. You could, for example, write “She smiled happily,” but that would be redundant, and no one would smile happily while reading your (un)carefully crafted sentence. “Frowned morosely” and “jumped up and down excitedly” are other examples of repetitive verb-adverb combinations. Most of the time, a descriptive verb will suffice. The norm is to smile when you're happy. Only an unusual smile needs the highlighting of an adverb--a crafty⁶ smile or a resigned smile may merit a descriptor.
Now for a brief list of very, very useless adverbs: the ones often used carelessly as intensifiers. You really should cut these out: “extremely,” “definitely,” “truly,” “very,” and “really.” You can totally use them in dialogue though, especially if your characters are surfers. Otherwise, avoid them mightily⁷.
You’ll also hear complaints about adverbs that are used alongside verbs of attribution, which are words such as “said,” “asked,” and “stated.” Some overeager writers think they’re being clever when they tack⁸ on adverbs to their “saids,” as in “‘I told you not to hit your brother over the head,’ she said angrily.” Instead, stick with a lone⁹ “said” most of the time. Let the substance of the dialogue get across the way it’s being said; don’t rely on an adverb to do the work for you. When you peruse¹⁰ your close-to-final draft, critique your adverbs on a usefulness scale. If you could cut the adverb without irreparably harming the sentence, please do so, and do so happily.
Misplaced Adverbs
Next we come to adverbs that are allowed to stay—but not in their current position. Adverbs unwittingly get misplaced, especially when your sentence has two verbs and one adverb. In the sentence “She was looking at the man thoughtfully,” the adverb “thoughtfully” clearly modifies “was looking.”
Things get a bit dicey if we add another verb, though: “She was looking at the man running thoughtfully.” Here, “thoughtfully” could modify two verbs: “was looking” and “running,” so the sentence could mean she was looking thoughtfully at the man, or she was looking at the man who was simultaneously¹¹ running and pontificating.
Most readers would likely assume that “thoughtfully” goes with the closer verb, in this case “running.”
No matter the correct interpretation¹², you don’t want to leave your readers wondering. Rewrite as appropriate: either “She was looking thoughtfully at the runner” or “She was looking at the man who was running thoughtfully.”
The adverb “only” also gets stuck in the wrong place. We covered this topic in another episode but we’ll mention it briefly¹³ here. If you say, “Candace only edits on Tuesdays,” you’re suggesting that the only thing Candace does on Tuesdays is edit; she doesn't write, she doesn't sleep, she doesn't eat. She only edits.
Granted, misplaced “onlys” pop up in everyday speech, but in writing it’s best to be more precise and use “only” in the right place. The right place is almost never before the verb.
 

1 justifiably   

adv.无可非议地

参考例句：

• There General Walters would come aboard to greet me, justifiably beaming with pride at his arrangement. 在那儿沃尔特斯将军会登上飞机来接我，理所当然为他们的安排感到洋洋得意。 来自辞典例句
• The Chinese seemed justifiably proud of their economic achievements. 中国人似乎为他们的经济成就感到自豪，这是无可非议的。 来自互联网

2 maligned   

vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• She feels she has been much maligned by the press. 她觉得她遭到了新闻界的恣意诽谤。
• We maligned him dreadfully when you come to think of it. 回头想想，我们狠狠地中伤了他。 来自辞典例句

3 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

4 sprouts   

n.新芽，嫩枝( sprout的名词复数 )v.发芽( sprout的第三人称单数 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• The wheat sprouts grew perceptibly after the rain. 下了一场雨，麦苗立刻见长。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The sprouts have pushed up the earth. 嫩芽把土顶起来了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 pruning   

n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分

参考例句：

• In writing an essay one must do a lot of pruning. 写文章要下一番剪裁的工夫。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• A sapling needs pruning, a child discipline. 小树要砍，小孩要管。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 crafty   

adj.狡猾的，诡诈的

参考例句：

• He admired the old man for his crafty plan.他敬佩老者的神机妙算。
• He was an accomplished politician and a crafty autocrat.他是个有造诣的政治家，也是个狡黠的独裁者。

7 mightily   

ad.强烈地；非常地

参考例句：

• He hit the peg mightily on the top with a mallet. 他用木槌猛敲木栓顶。
• This seemed mightily to relieve him. 干完这件事后，他似乎轻松了许多。

8 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

9 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

10 peruse   

v.细读，精读

参考例句：

• We perused the company's financial statements for the past five years.我们翻阅了公司过去5年来的财务报表。
• Please peruse this report at your leisure.请在空暇时细读这篇报道。

11 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

12 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

13 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。