Its been bugging me since the title of HP 7 came out.
2007-07-19 07:14:49 · 5 answers · asked by Juan A 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Though they look similar, understanding how they are different simply requires looking carefully at how they are used. "Deadly force," "deadly weapon," but "deathly afraid," "deathly Ill.
Deadly is actually an adjective that modifies the nouns "force" and "weapon" telling us that the force and the weapon are powerful enough to kill.
Deathly is an adverb modifying the adjectives "afraid" and "ill" telling us the degree of fear and illness (how afraid and how ill).
To test this, replace the words with similar adjectives and adverbs. Let's try "dangerous" for "deadly" and "very" for "deathly".
"dangerous force" "dangerous weapon" both okay.
"dangerous afraid" "dangerous ill" NOT okay.
"very force" "very weapon" NOT okay.
"very afraid" "very ill" both okay.
2007-07-19 07:25:06 · answer #1 · answered by Teacher 2 · 7⤊ 0⤋
The difference between "deadly" and "deathly" is that deadly means that it can cause death, and deathly means that it looks like death, kind of like saying death-like.
2007-07-19 07:36:09 · answer #2 · answered by beautifulgrrl2004 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Deadly - used to describe something that could definitely kill or harm you.
Deathly - used to described someone who literally looks like death ("deathly ill")
2007-07-19 07:32:04 · answer #3 · answered by Sharon Newman (YR) Must Die 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
both of them mean basically the same but the way they are used in grammar whether an adjective or adverb plays a roll in it.
so there you go.
2007-07-19 08:09:20 · answer #4 · answered by penny c 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
DEATHLY - resembling death or somebody who's dead
DEADLY - able or likely to cause death
2007-07-19 07:46:11 · answer #5 · answered by FRoSTeDMoNK 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋