Paul Burgmann
"Undisturbed" - Does there exist an adverb? Hi, Maybe someone could give me a piece of advice with this problem: Is there an adverb (such as maybe “undisturbedly”) that could be used in this context? 1. I want to find a time where I can study English every day undisturbed. 2. I want to find a time where I can study English every day without being disturbed. As for me, the second sentence sounds not too wrong. In regard to the first one I might want to put in “undisturbedly”. However, I am not sure whether this word really exist or if I have just added a new word to the English language. Thanks! Paul
Feb 12, 2017 9:10 AM
Answers · 17
2
Both your sentences are correct, but 'undisturbedly' would be wrong. This is because the word 'undisturbed' does not relate directly to the way that you're studying - you can study hard [yes, it's an adverb] or you can study carefully, for example, but you cannot study 'undisturbedly'. When we say "...I can study English every day undisturbed", this is an elliptical way of saying '...under conditions in which I will not be disturbed.' 'Disturbed' is a past participle, used as an adjective. It refers to your state, not to the manner in which you are doing something. This is why the adjective is correct and the adverb is not.
February 12, 2017
2
“Undisturbedly” does exist: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/undisturbedly You can also google “undisturbedly”. There are 11100 results in Google Books, but it seems most of them are quite old. UPDATE: please disregard the following - it contains errors: Yes, you can write: “I want to find a time where I can study English every day undisturbedly.”, but since there are native speakers who don’t know the word, I suppose you better avoid it. In my opinion, “I want to find a time where I can study English every day undisturbed.” is perfectly fine, even though “undisturbed” is actually an adjective. It seems to me it’s not uncommon in English to use adjectives as though they were adverbs.
February 12, 2017
1
Hi Paul, Both are correct. English doesn't have an adverb "undisturbedly" which means we have to say something like you said. If you said "undisturbedly" when speaking, people would certainly understand you, but it is not a standard/official word. Other things you could say would be: * I want to find a time where I can study English every day without interruptions. * I want to find a time where I can study English every day undisturbed without being interrupted. Hope it helps!
February 12, 2017
1
Hi Paul, your second sentence is 100% correct. Your first sentence makes sense but would be less commonly used. If it was it might be written with a comma "every day, undisturbed" to make the "undisturbed" almost like an afterthought. Hope this makes sense? As you say, "undisturbedly" is not a word.
February 12, 2017
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