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Walk slow.

 
 
Reply Fri 3 Feb, 2017 11:59 pm
Walk slow.

Do native speakers use "slow" as shown above?

Thanks.
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Type: Question • Score: 4 • Views: 467 • Replies: 7

 
roger
 
  4  
Reply Sat 4 Feb, 2017 12:20 am
@tanguatlay,
It should be 'walk slowly', but yes, we use it at least in the US. We also have traffic signs advising us to 'drive slow'. I grit my teeth every time I see that.
tanguatlay
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Feb, 2017 12:41 am
@roger,
roger wrote:

It should be 'walk slowly', but yes, we use it at least in the US. We also have traffic signs advising us to 'drive slow'. I grit my teeth every time I see that.
Thank you.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  2  
Reply Sat 4 Feb, 2017 01:51 am
My favorite sign of that type is: Slow, Children Playing. They leave out the comma.
roger
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Feb, 2017 01:55 am
@Setanta,
Classic.
0 Replies
 
centrox
 
  2  
Reply Sat 4 Feb, 2017 03:24 am
@roger,
roger wrote:
We also have traffic signs advising us to 'drive slow'. I grit my teeth every time I see that.

Using slow as an adverb may not be incorrect.

Dance instructors say "slow, slow, quick, quick, slow", don't they?

Sometimes in union disputes in Britain, employees, e.g. railway staff will stage a punctilious observance of all rules and regulations, including minor ones usually ignored, which they call a "work-to-rule". The media, especially unsympathetic newspapers, often say they are staging a "go slow".

Bryan A. Garner in “A Dictionary of Modern American Usage” says: “Though slowly is the more common adverb and is certainly correct, slow is often just as good in adverbial sense. … In deciding whether to use slow or slowly, let rhythm and euphony be your guides.”

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary says: "Slow is almost always used with verbs that denote movement or action, and it regularly follows the verb it modifies <beans . . . are best cooked long and slow —Louise Prothro>. Slowly is used before the verb <a sense of outrage, which slowly changed to shame —Paul Horgan> and with participial adjectives <a slowly dawning awareness . . . of the problem —American Labor>. Slowly is used after verbs where slow might also be used <burn slow or slowly> and after verbs where slow would be unidiomatic <the leadership turned slowly toward bombing as a means of striking back —David Halberstam>"

I think that with traffic signs, lettering on the road surface, etc, rapidity of reading and (hopefully) comprehension and (even more hopefully) compliance favours the choice of the less frequent but still correct usage of "slow".

I do remember a regional TV news report that "SOLW" had been painted on the tarmac approaching a big road junction. The county authority said the painting team had "ignored the drawings supplied to them".
roger
 
  2  
Reply Sat 4 Feb, 2017 03:29 am
@centrox,
My teeth are nothing but nubs.
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Region Philbis
 
  2  
Reply Sat 4 Feb, 2017 08:39 am

you can also "walk softly and carry a big stick"...
0 Replies
 
 

 
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