Secretly
Hello Friends,
He thought she was a banker, but she was secretly a spy.
Can we use secretly like this, or is there a better way to put it? I want to convey that though she appeared as a banker to the outside world, she was secretly a spy.
Thanks so much.
Top answer
That works well. It's a natural way to express the idea.
- That works well.
- It's a natural way to express the idea.
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The original sentence is completely understandable, but doesn't sound quite natural to native-English-speaking ears. The problem is that a spy is inherently a secret person, so using the word "secretly" with the word "spy" is sort of hitting the listener over the head all this secret business. Depending on the context, this might be phrased, for example, as:
He thought she was a
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