Confusing pairs
Complete the sentence with hard/hardly:
He works very ___, but he ___ earns enough money.
Answer: hard / hardly
Which adverb means “according to what you heard or read”?
Answer: apparently
Correct the mistake:
He hardly studies, so he gets very good marks.
Answer: He studies hard, so he gets very good marks.
Complete the sentence with late/lately:
I haven’t seen her ___ — she must be busy.
Answer: lately
Which adverb means “little by little”?
Answer: gradually
Correct the sentence:
At the end, we decided to stay at home.
Answer: In the end, we decided to stay at home.
I’m ___ finished — just one more exercise.
(near / nearly)
Answer: nearly
Which adverb means “in the main / in general”?
Answer: basically
Paraphrase using hardly:
I almost didn’t understand anything.
Answer: I hardly understood anything.
I didn’t want to go, but ___ they convinced me.
(at the end / in the end)
Answer: in the end
Which adverb means “to emphasise the truth or contradiction”?
Answer: in fact
Paraphrase using eventually:
After many problems, we succeeded.
Answer: Eventually, we succeeded.
Are you ___ working on this project?
(still / yet)
Answer: still
What’s the difference in meaning between near and nearly?
Answer:
near → distance
nearly → almost
Paraphrase using apparently:
According to what I’ve heard, they’re getting divorced.
Answer: Apparently, they’re getting divorced.