When writing this post, I said:

Why not use faster dogs to get it over with quicker?

Was I correct to use 'quicker' (or 'faster', for that matter)? Or should I have used 'more quickly'? Are both acceptable? This is something I've come across before, and I genuinely get confused as to which term to use. The same goes with slower / more slowly, and various other words.

I know that one is technically an adjective and the other an adverb, so the rules regarding qualification of nouns / verbs should make it clear, but it doesn't. The adjective often comes to mind first when I'm speaking, but I wonder if that's just learned behaviour due to over-informality of speech rather than the fact that it's acceptable.

Can someone enlighten me? I'm hardly losing sleep over it, but it has puzzled me for a while now.

Cat, I am not the grammar expert here, but I would say "more quickly." The sentence structure is not one that I would use, and I wonder if it is more a British way of speaking.

More quicklier

Quote "...Why not use faster dogs to get it over with quicker?.."

I would not use an adverb or an adjective on its own as you have here. It's OK to say "...He's a quicker runner..." since the adjective is clearly qualifying the noun "runner".

But I would never say "he runs quicker" unless there were some other part of the sentence that "quicker" qualified. Say, "...He runs quicker than Fred can..."

On its own I would say, "...He runs more quickly..."

Whether that's a matter of grammar or simply style I don't know. I just know what feel right to me.

OK. Here's the definitive modern take culled from my grammar reference books.
Some (most) adjectives form an adverb bt adding -ly or by adding -ly with a slight modification to the spelling; sad sadly, cheerful cherfully, gentle gently, tragic tragically.

Some adverbs which end in -ly are formed not from adjectives but from nouns; daily, weekly, namely, partly.

Some adverbs which end in -ly are not related at all to nouns or adjectives; accordingly, mostly, presumably.

Some adverbs have the same form as the corresponding adjective (I'll give a slightly longer list of these)

alike, all right, alone, clean, deep, direct, even... tight, wide.

Now you might disagree with some of those (tight for example, I'm coming to that bear with me.

Some adverbs formed from adjectives show both forms.

cleanly, directly, deeply, evenly, tightly.

Often the forms have slightly different meanings and sometimes one form is used as premodifier and the other as a postmodifier. ("He tries hard" vs. "He hardly tries.")
Sometimes the meanings are identicle or very similar.
"He closed his eyse tight." "He closed his eyes tightly.

Here's the full list of common adjectives which the Cobuild English Grammar suggests fall into this last group (i.e. can take both forms).

clean, cleanly
direct,directly
deep, deeply
even, evenly
fine, finely
first, firstly
free, freely
full, fully
hard, hardly
high, highly
just, justly
last, lastly
late, lately
loud, loudly
quick, quickly
right, rightly
slow, slowly
tight, tightly
wide, widely
wrong, wrongly

Other books list additional ones but I think that's enough to be going on with.

So that's the long answer.

The short answer is that both are correct.

Hope that helps.

So 'quicker' can be an adjective and an adverb? And, Cat's sentence is grammatically correct? Interesting. Now I am going to have to see what the Chicago Style Manual says.

When would 'quickly' be an adjective? In the online AHD there is a usage note that says: "In speech quick is commonly used as an adverb in phrases such as Come quick. In formal writing, however, quickly is required."

BTW, "quick" can also be a noun, meaning "sensitive or raw exposed flesh, as under the fingernails." I didn't know that! I learn something new here every day. It also means "pregnant" or "alive?" Men...be careful when your woman says she is "quick!"

I love to use the term quicklier, but more for effect than anything else. It's just a quirk of the language.

K,

Have you heard the phrase "the quick and the dead" before?

"the quick and the dead"

Also, quicksilver for mercury?

(( Nothing personal here, Kalleh. Please see it as an exercise in posting skill. ))

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Increasing our awareness of the elements of cultural infrastructure can be a means of widening our horizons and building our vocabulary.

Christianity pervades our culture. Those who consider themselves to be Apostles of Jesus religiously repeat The Apostles' Creed, which declares that from his seat at the right hand of God, Jesus "shall come to judge the quick and the dead." (This might be the only place in our language where this sense of "quick" is used.)

But most of those who follow that creed would probably say, if asked, that
Adonoi is in the same semantic category as Tonsils.

I've heard people refer to a "quickening in the belly" or some other such euphemism for being preggers. Or sometimes "I felt a quickening . . ."

This might be the only place in our language where this sense of "quick" is used.

Another older meaning of quick is to be pregnant. But the meaning of alive seems to be represented in the term I gave above quicksilver. Of course, in English it's just an archaic term for alive or living. In the page JT linked to the terms in Latin (vivos) and Greek (ζωντας) pretty much mean living and not fast/quick (in its modern sense).

The verb quicken in the sense of to vitalize or to reach the stage of pregnancy were the fetus moves (quickening) is not quite so archaic as the adjective.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jheem,

Yes, "quickening" is a term sometimes used during pregnancy, referring to the movement of the baby. Is that what the "pregnancy" definition is referring to?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

Is that what the "pregnancy" definition is referring to?

Yes, but it's an obsolete meaning. I've corrected my posting. The meaning of cwicu in Old English is 'alive'. It's from the PIE root gwei- 'living' and is the source of Latin vivo 'to live' and Greek bios.

I still use the expression, "cut to the quick" in reference to a slanderous statement. My mother used to call the cuticle region of fingernails the quick. Thus do I continue to think that "quick" means feeling or sentient rather than a chocolate drink mix from Nestle.

a chocolate drink mix from Nestle

Chocolate-like, or chocoloid.

Quick click for Quik