Camilo Start with the adjective: soft / gentle. soft is describing the state of something e.g. that fabric is soft, and gentle refers to the action of something (you can't say a fabric is gentle). How does this help? Softly implies how it is effecting the thing, and gently refers to how it is being done to the thing i.e refers to the action. He touched her gently - you imagine how he is touching her He touched her softly - you imagine how she is being touched the wind blew gently - you imagine the wind blowing the wend blew softly - you imagine the wind blowing on your face (softly) Another example - in washing machines/ dish washers - there is always a "Gentle Cycle' - it implies that in that setting, the machine does its job gently - they never say 'soft cycle'. Just remember gentle/gently always refers to something BEING DONE. Happy to help if you need it. Len from Australia

Yes, in their adverbial (gently, softly) form they are interchangeable. However, soft and gentle are not.

As adverbs the difference between gently and softly is that gently is in a gentle manner while softly is in a soft manner . Gently is being mild or being kindly . The wind blew gently(not strong) or speak gently to her( speak kindly and not harsh)). Soft means gentle to the touch and also not loud > I touch the dog softly ( touch gently) / or speak softly ( not loud) The similarity is when you use in the context of " touching " someone