More safely or safer?

Question

Help -- which one of these options is correct?"Helping you live safer and more independently"OR"Helping you live more safely and independently"Thanks so much!

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

Safely. You have correctly chosen the adverb form for independently, so choose the corresponding adverb form for safely.

You could instead say helping you have a safer and more independent life.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks for your reply. You confirmed my thinking. I saw this adjective/adverb mix in a printed brochure from a reputable company and couldn't believe my eyes!

BarbaraPA · Answer

Take it from someone who writes brochures for a living - after a hundred revisions, and cutting and pasting, and nine different people who have to approve it who each have their own respective edits, mistakes get out!

Believer · Answer

Hi,

I don't particularly feel that the two sentences the originer poster used to ask the question are bad ones and need to be marked as 'bad ones'. I think the sentences used are:

Helping you live safer and more independently.

Helping you live more safely and independently.

I do agree that 'more independently' is correct and to make the overall sentence appear structually sound, it would be better to write it like the second one but the first one doesn't look that bad to me.

Cool Breeze · Answer

BelieverHelping you live safer and more independently.

Helping you live more safely and independently.

I do agree that 'more independently' is correct and to make the overall sentence appear structually sound, it would be better to write it like the second one but the first one doesn't look that bad to me.

Hi Believer

It may not look bad to you but no serious grammarian will accept it. Safer is an adjective, not an adverb, even though adjectives are commonly used in incorrect spoken English instead of adverbs. One often hears sentences like this: He sings beautiful. The fact that uneducated people in particular use constructions like that a lot doesn't make them correct. At least not yet. Perhaps at some stage in the future they have become so common that some grammarians will accept them.

Safer can be used in reply to a question like: "What is his car like?" "It's safer."

Safer can't be used in a reply to the following question: "In what way does he live these days?" "He lives [more] safely."
You don't have to use a comparative in your reply, but if you do, the comparative of safely is formed using more.

Cheers
CB

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