Grammar in the English language?

Question

All the time on the news and in papers i see and hear things such as 'quickly heat' and 'brutally murdered'. However shouldn't the adjective go AFTER the verb? And another thing is words like overpowered and overwhelmed... You cannot be 'whelmed'.. someone please explain.

Answer 1

Words that end in "ly" are usually adverbs. Adverbs are used to describe verbs, so technically, I believe that would be right. Also with overpowered and overwhelmed they are supposed to be one word.

Answer 2

'Quickly' and ' brutally' are adverbs, not adjectives. An adverb modifies a verb as in 'kicked brutally'. An adjective describes a noun as in 'brutal assault'. Adjectives usually go before the noun in English (after the noun in Welsh), adverbs can come before or after the verb as in 'the soldier was killed brutally or the soldier was brutally killed. I think the latter sounds better.

Overpowered and overwhelmed are words in their own right...nothing to do with powered or whelmed.

Answer 3

It really does not matter if adverbs are placed before or after the verb (so long as they are reasonably close to the verb in your sentence).

Generally, most Anglophones place their adjectives before their nouns, but even that is not a rule (do consider, verse poetic).

'whelmen' (to turn over) is a verb from Middle English. It is rarely used.

If you are interested in word origins and etymologies, then you should get yourself a dictionary (and an encyclopedia).