Friday 5 March 2010

'Boo!' she said suddenly

'It's wonderful you're reading this blogpost,' she said happily. 'I love talking about redundant adverbs.'

'Is that so?' he said worriedly. 'It's not going to be one of those ones where you go on and on and on.'

'Of course not,' she said reassuringly.

'Well I'm not so sure,' he said grumblingly. 'You'll be telling me next that you shouldn't go round making them up just by adding a -ly on the end of adjectives.'

'Or even participles,' she said grumblingly as well. 'Even if Spellchecker doesn't correct them, it's still not good writing style.'

'So can't I ever use them?' he said questioningly.

She smiled consolingly at him. 'Sparingly,' she said.