Adjective-Adverb Errors

Illustrative Sentences

The exacting editor looked extremely close at the young author's final manuscript, but could find
no typographical, grammatical, or other errors.
The team of surgeons worked slowly and steady during the most delicate phase of the operation
on the newborn infant's heart.

I'm sure you know the difference between an adjective and an adverb. Adjectives modify only nouns or
pronouns; adverbs modify primarily verbs , but also adjectives and other adverbs. What's the big
deal? What makes these errors so pesky is that the adjective and adverb forms of many words look
almost identical, with two or three letters making all the difference.
In the first example, the word "close" is supposed to modify the verb "looked" so it should take the adverb
form, "closely." It's easy to misread this sentence because of the expression "taking a close look," in
which the word "close" now modifies the noun, "a look," and so is in the correct adjective form.
The exacting editor looked extremely closely at the young author's final manuscript, but could
find no typographical, grammatical, or other errors. (Correct)

In the second example, the adjective "steady" should be the adverb "steadily" because it modifies the
verb "worked." Here again, if you weren't on the lookout for this type of error, you can see how it would be
possible to miss it entirely (just like diction errors).
The team of surgeons worked slowly and steady during the most delicate phase of the operation on the
newborn infant's heart. (Correct).