difference

Question

Is there any difference between following sentences?
1. We arrived home safe.
2. We arrived home safely.
I can't recall the name of the book but I remember that some book says 2 focuses on the process to getting home and 1 on the status as we appeared in the house.
Is it right?

Philip · Accepted Answer

Your book is correct. The adjective safe describes the condition you were in when you arrived. The adverb safely describes how you traveled.

Cho7712 · Answer

Thank you for the answer!

Enoon · Answer

cho7712Is there any difference between following sentences? 1. We arrived home safe. 2. We arrived home safely.I can't recall the name of the book but I remember that some book says 2 focuses on the process to getting home and 1 on the status as we appeared in the house.Is it right?

I disagree with the book. I think that "safe" in "arrived home safe" is a predicate adjective, "arrive" having copulative force, and "safely" is a mistake brought on by hypercorrection to the "-ly" adverb. You can't arrive traveling—arrival is a point in time.

You hear it both ways so often that the grammar doesn't really matter, though, and the two sentences mean the same thing, that we were safe when we got home.

It's a moot point, to be sure.

Cho7712 · Answer

Thank you for the answer.

enoon "arrive" having copulative force,

enoonYou can't arrive traveling—arrival is a point in time.

According to your conclusion, there is no sense of processing to getting home in sentence 2 and no difference between them.
But I think the predicative use of adjective forces the reading of resultative state and
the adverb of manner enables us to see the sentence2 as a completed action after going through a safe process for preliminary actions are strongly implied in an act of arriving.
It is just my two-cents. What do you think about it?

Edot kusuma · Answer

it hard topic

Enoon · Answer

cho7712Thank you for the answer.enoon "arrive" having copulative force,enoonYou can't arrive traveling—arrival is a point in time.According to your conclusion, there is no sense of processing to getting home in sentence 2 and no difference between them.But I think the predicative use of adjective forces the reading of resultative state andthe adverb of manner enables us to see the sentence2 as a completed action after going through a safe process for preliminary actions are strongly implied in an act of arriving.It is just my two-cents. What do you think about it?

I am sure that all those who see nothing wrong with "safely" have their own perfectly valid way of looking at it. You have expressed yours well. I would still argue that you are making arrival into something it is not. If you are flying a plane, you can touch down safely, touching down being a process that can go very unsafely indeed. You can't touch down safe. Arriving is not such a process. To have arrived safely on the Tube, you would have to have minded the gap. To have arrived safely by car, you would have to have not driven into the house. The adverb strictly applies to the verb, and the verb rejects it. That is just how it sounds to me.

Cho7712 · Answer

Thank you for the answer.

enoonIf you are flying a plane, you can touch down safely, touching down being a process that can go very unsafely indeed

enoonTo have arrived safely by car, you would have to have not driven into the house. The adverb strictly applies to the verb, and the verb rejects it. That is just how it sounds to me.

It is very interesting examples that lead me into total confusion.
Well, as you said in the earlier reply, this is a moot point.
I might as well use an adjective for accuracy's sake.

Enoon · Answer

It occurs to me that I have no problem with "We got home safely." Getting somewhere is a process.

I didn't mean to make you choose my way. Many people who seem otherwise to be quite sane and intelligent refuse to do most of the things I tell them to.

Cho7712 · Answer

I understand what you mean. It seems like I have to be flexible as far as language is concerned. (if I can handle it)

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