Adverb

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Help.I have a child who skates and I often have to talk about how well her skates are tied.It's important that they be tied "tight" enough.I can't stand saying "your boots should be tied tightly", even though it is an adverb and that is correct,it does not feel or sound right to me.I use " tight" i.e."Tie your boots tight" Am I totally out of whack, or is "tight" acceptable as an adverb?
Gummi

Rommie · Accepted Answer

In spoken and informal English you would get away with it. I wouldn't write that in a formal work though. If an adverb is required, then an adverb it must be. "Tight" is not an adverb.

If saying "tightly" does not "feel or sound right" to you, it's because you are used to hearing lots of other people say it that way. Even if you don't live in America (where this sort of thing is rampant) you will have heard it on American TV shows. This usage is slowly becoming common in England. A few years ago it would have been very uncommon indeed. In Ireland, however, it is common to hear "I was terrible wet", and so forth.

In fact, the "-ly" has been gradually disappearing from usage for a long, long time now. For example, the adverbial form of "friendly" is "friendlily", but that has almost dropped out of usage altogether now. For some reason, the ending "-lily" is not a popular one.

Be aware that using an adjective as an adverb can sometimes be ambiguous. Compare:
1. I liked her enormously
2. I liked her enormous.

Dropping the "-ly" here could result in some serious confusion.

If you are after some formal justification for your choice, you'll have to wait. Usage rules often turn into formal rules eventually, but you might have to wait a generation or two before it becomes official. In the meantime, if you wish to promote such a change, use "tight" (and similar) anyway, and argue that you are acting in the interests of the evolution of grammar. (I do that with grammar rules I don't like).

Rommie

Rommie · Answer

I've decided to U-turn here and give a completely different answer from the one above. My new answer is, yes you can say "Tie your laces [but probably not your boots] tight", and it's good grammar.

Or at least, it can be argued that way.

You see, different rules apply if the verb is causative. If your action causes a noun to possess the quality of an adjective, then you can place the adjective after the noun and you don't need to make it an edverb. Here are some examples of this, done properly:

Paint the town red.
Make her happy.

etc. You can see the pattern.

So the only real question is whether or not "tie your boots tight" fits this pattern. Probably not for "boots", but you could argue that causation was in effect if instead you were talking about the "laces". So, having thought about this a bit, I reckon that the following is sound:

Tie your laces tight

(for reasons stated above).
Rommie (slightly embarrassed that I didn't think of that yesterday)

Guest · Answer

Thank you Rommie for both responses.At 67 years, I'm never going to see much more change in our wonderful grammer! However, the boots of the skates are what need to be tight, so I shall continue to tie them tight.Love this forum!

Simon_phlui · Answer

Does the verb "tie" here act as a link verb, just like "look"
in "You look angry."?

Rommie · Answer

I wouldn't have thought so, no.

Does it make a different though? In "Paint the town red", "paint" is most certainly not a linking verb, and yet I believe the sentence to be correct. I mean, you wouldn't say "Paint the town redly", would you? So I think the causation rule is not restricted only to linking verbs.

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