Gossip travels quick or quickly?

Question

In an English language textbook published by Oxford University Press I came across a sentence "In my office gossip travels even quicker than email". I thought you have to use an adverb in such a sentence - "travels more quickly". Which is correct?

Answer 1

Written language tends to be more formal, so actually, the style manuals would typically insist on 'more quickly' for written language. The same holds true for formal speeches. Casual speech, and casual writing for that matter, permit much more. So, it really depends on the context (in this case, the domain). The copy editor of a textbook should have caught it, unless, of course, the example sentence served expressly to show current usage norms. Even without the '-ly', though, it's still an adverb-- both in function and in form.

Answer 2

An adverb, generally speaking, follows a verb. Hence, "Gossip travels quickLY." If you're wanting to compare, then you would indeed say "Gossip travels quicker by email than by..."

Answer 3

quickly, and boy, is that true!

"ly" goes to adverbs. :)

I get what everybody's saying about faster, etc. They're getting this from the old adage, "Gossip travels quickly," and applying it to a situation, though, so I think it would be okay.

Answer 4

Quickly, an adverb is correct here.

Answer 5

"Quicker than email" is the correct form.More quickly is not accepted under strict English rules

Answer 6

"More quickly" is not correct. A better way to word it would be: "In my office gossip travels faster than email".

Answer 7

I've always used "quickly". It sounds proper.

Answer 8

Fast!