closely knit or close knit? I always hear the latter, but the former seems correct?
2007-11-27 09:09:11 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
closely knit is better, because here knit is an action/ verb, and the word closely needs to be an adverb in order to describe knit.
2007-11-27 09:44:53 · answer #1 · answered by Zevin 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Both are correct and mean the same thing, but to get really technical, if you're going to drop the "ly", you should join the two with a dash (close-knit). In the first case, "closely" is an adverb describing the adjective "knit" which in turn would describe a noun, likely "group". In the second case, "close-knit" forms a compound adjective describing "group".
2007-11-27 17:25:36 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Closely knit
2007-11-27 17:16:12 · answer #3 · answered by JR 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The former is correct as two words. However, "close-knit", note the hyphen, is an accepted adjective.
2007-11-27 17:20:04 · answer #4 · answered by joe_ska 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Closely knit is correct. It is an adverb in this case, and close is an adjective.
2007-11-27 17:15:26 · answer #5 · answered by ♂ ♫ Timberwolf 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Closely knit" is more correct, although "close knit" is heard more often.
It's like the phrase "I could care less." It's supposed to be "I couldn't care less," but we get lazy when we speak.
2007-11-27 17:16:20 · answer #6 · answered by DJ 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋