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Living language (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 5 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Some flat adverbs sound perfectly natural to most speakers, like "play nice" or "drive safe". Others have less acceptability among people in general, like "That tastes real good."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_adverb

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    I don't even see "nice" in "play nice" as an adverb. You could switch "play" for "be" -- "be nice", same with "be safe".

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    There's that old line that if my aunt had wheels she'd be a bicycle. Maybe the command form is muddling the topic here, but using the be-verb with an adjective like that attaches a subject complement, essentially describing the subject. But "I am fast" describing a person doesn't mean that saying "I drive fast" is describing a drive as a noun.

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