Surely or surely?
Certainly you've probably seen these two shapes circulating around, right? Well then, let's analyze this very common linguistic doubt and eliminate once and for all the error so widespread in the written modality.
Anyone who has never made the mistake has probably seen someone close to him do it. It is very common, especially on social networks, to find the word "surely" pretending to be straight and confusing a lot of people. Well let's unmask it, because the word written like this, "surely",never existed, is a fake! The correct written form is certainly. There is only one way, nothing to invent variations for this adverbial phrase that Never should be written with one word, but with two separate words, after all, it is a adverbial phrase.
the adverbial phrase certainly must be written separately, as it consists of two words, a preposition and a noun*
the adverbial phrase certainly it acts as an adverb and its function is to change the meaning of a verb. It is formed by the preposition
with and by the noun certainty and confers ideas of affirmation and conviction. It may be replaced by the following words, which act as synonyms: certainly, no doubt, of right, of course and of certainty.Let's look at some examples?
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The audience stood up and applauded, they certainly enjoyed the performance! (idea of conviction) Rest assured, the audience certainly enjoyed the presentation. (probability idea) - Did you like the presentation? - Certainly! (enthusiastic expression) |
Now that you've learned that the right thing is to write certainly so, separately, and that does not exist the shape surely, Pay attention to the following tip: Have you ever stopped to think about how much we use this adverbial phrase, both in speech and in writing? Look and you will surely see that it is used a lot, in many contexts, by speakers. Therefore, as it is used extensively, it is interesting that we are careful not to make it a cliché, that is, an expression that has been so used that its meaning is emptied. There are some synonyms, as we said before, so there's no point in using just the certainly, this way we enrich our vocabulary and avoid the impoverishment of the Portuguese language.
*Comic strip “Garfield”, by Jim Davis.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
