Adverbs with differences in form and meaning

Direct- without stopping We flew direct to China.	Directly- immediately. Don’t go. I’ll be with you directly. straight. She looked directly at us. with no one else in between. You’ll be directly responsible to me.
Late – not early/not on time The plane arrived late due to bad weather.	Lately – recently She’s been rather ill lately.
High – to a great height He lifted it high over his head.	Highly – extremely - very favourably Arsenic is highly toxic. I think highly of you.
Hard-with a lot of effort/severely He braked hard when he saw the cat. It was raining hard.	Hardly- scarcely, almost not We hardly know our neighbours.
Right – direction/correctly Turn right at the crossroads. Try to do right this time.	Rightly – correctly in my opinion The tribunal rightly condemned the war criminals.
Free – without paying We got into the concert free!	Freely- without limitation or control Sheep roam freely over the hill.
Deep – to a great depth/distance We explored deep into the jungle.	Deeply – thoroughly I’m deeply ashamed of my behaviour.
Near – close He lives quite near.	Nearly – almost It is nearly five o’clock.
Last –after all the others He came last in the race.	Lastly – finally Lastly, I’d like to say…
Wide – completely Open your mouth wide.	Widely – to many places She has traveled widely.

Sometimes the two forms of the adverb have the same or a similar meaning.

rough/roughly	He plays rough. He pushed her roughly. (both = in a violent way).
loud/loudly	Don’t talk so loud/loudly.
tight/tightly	Hold on tight. He held on tightly.
wrong/wrongly	You’ve done it all wrong. Rightly or wrongly, the house belongs to her.
quick/quickly	Get out of here quick! They ran out of the room as quickly as they could. (= the more common form).

Underline the correct option in italics.

He slapped him friendly/in a friendly way on the back.

Does that flight go direct/directly or is there a stopover?

Many of the senior staff are right/rightly concerned about their pensions.

There's been a lot of talk about European integration late/lately.

Our new cellphone fits easy/easily into the average-sized pocket.

The path leads straight/straightly to the front door.

Healthy/Healthwise, stress is probably the most serious problem facing people today.

Animals are now able to wander free/freely throughout the game reserve.

In late spring the gulls nest high/highly on the cliff face.

The remains of the Spanish galleon lie deep/deeply under the ocean.

The minister will begin by giving a statement. After/Afterwards, you will be able to put your questions to him directly.

Jackson came pretty close/closely to winning that last race.

You'll never get better if you don't eat - you've hard/hardly touched your dinner!

In the Denver play-offs the Miami team did real/good well.

Some of these kids drive their cars far too fast/fastly.