Adverbs with and without ly ending

In English there are some adverbs that have the same form as the corresponding adjectives, but also the form ending in ly, for example late & lately, near & nearly, etc. This may be confusing for learners of English for at least two reasons. First, when students learn about adverbs in English, they are taught that the basic rule for forming adverbs is to add ly to the corresponding adjectives, for example: slow – slowly, occasional – occasionally, final – finally. Therefore, when they see forms such as late & lately, they cannot distinguish between the adjective and adverb and therefore they put the adjective or adverb in the wrong place in the sentence. Second, since the meaning of the forms ending in ly and of those that are identical to the forms of the adjectives are not the same, students wrongly use the form with or without ly.

Below are the most frequently used pairs of such adverbs together with their meaning.