Adverbially Complicated

An adverb is very funny, just in case you already didn't know it moved. It's made by taking an adjective and adding -ly to the end.

Greatly

Beautifully

Sadly

Bountifully

That is not always the case. I can think of several adjectives you cannot do that too. For example, a well cat. You could say the cat is well. It also fits into our example quite nicely.

The well cat is very well.

What you cannot do is add an -ly onto the end of it. Well, perhaps you can if you are in England. But that is about the only place. Even there, it is not entirely correct. How will you know which words obey this rule? Test it out in spoken language. If it doesn't sound quite right or isn't commonly used, chances are you shouldn't. Then if that was not bad enough, there's one more exception to the rule.

Increasingly

That is because the source word was the verb to increase. The adjective form is known as increased because you can also say this. The increased thing is very increased. Increasing would be a gerund or a participle with helper words. See will be increasing for more details. Let's say you have gone through all that trouble, only to find the related adverb has become increasingly complex. Now let's see some other words that aren't quite that well behaved. The best example is from the story of Ruth, where the mother-in-law says:

The Lord has dealt very bountifully with me.

What if she had meant to say another thing though. Would that have changed it?

The Lord has dealt with me very bountifully.

That doesn't hurt too much for it is a simple sentence you see. Now let's say I have Naomi, the mother-in-law talking about herself and Ruth. She is going to say,

The Lord has dealt with me and Ruth very bountifully.

Here the meaning's not too clear. Did the Lord deal with both bountifully or did he just bless Ruth. Perhaps Naomi was being punished, and poor Ruth was to be left alone. From this sentence we would never know. Perhaps if you would like to tell a lie successfully this would be best to use but not in everyday. In order to fix the case, I would need to do one of several things. Can you guess what I should do?

The Lord has dealt with us very bountifully.

Or

The Lord has dealt very bountifully with Naomi and me.

Notice I said I instead of me. That is because of this:

The Lord has dealt with I.

Versus

The Lord has dealt with me.

Now you can finally combine the two and see what comes out.

The Lord has dealt with we.

Dear merciful goodness, it's happening again, isn't it. Things just won't stay put. Let's try that again, shall we?

Us the Lord has dealt with.

Now very bountifully is a given. Let's rest that right there. What if I moved the Lord?

Us has been dealt with by the Lord.

Let's try that one more time.

We have been dealt with by the Lord.

Okay, much better. Now let's try it again on the end.

The Lord has dealt with us.

Which can also read:

Isn't God so good to you and me.

Now let's put Naomi up front and let her testify.

Me has been dealt with by the Lord.

Merciful Heavens, something's quite wrong indeed.

I have been dealt with by the Lord.

Good work, Naomi. Now please take a seat. Let's not be too hard on she, I mean her. Perhaps your language doesn't have all these issues. That is okay. How does your language treat these special words?