"former friend"or"formerly friend"?
well,in《friends》,a woman says"your formerly fat frnd is getting married first",so whats the difference between "former frnd"and"formerly frnd"?

Question

Answer

Former friend sounds better.

Answer

We often say 'former friend' to refer to someone who used to be our friend. The word 'formerly fat friend' means a friend who used to be fat. We don't usually use 'formerly friend.'

Grammatically, 'former' is an adjective, so it modifies the noun, 'friend.' On the other hand, 'formerly' is an adverb, so it modifies the adjective, 'fat.'