Learn English – Is “deep” an adverb in “They dug the well deep.” or something else

adverbsparts-of-speech

They dug the well deep.

What is "deep" in that sentence? I think its adverb but I stood wrong, help me someone!

Best Answer

You can also understand that sentence like this:

They dug the well (to be | so it was) deep.

in which case deep is a characteristic of the well, not a manner of digging.

Compare:

They ate the fish raw.

P.S. Consider the following. The parentheses around to be indicates that those words could be used in an actual statement but may be omitted without change of meaning.

They wanted the well (to be) deep.

deep is a characteristic of the (intended) well, not of the wanting itself.

So they dug the well (to be) deep.

Transitive dig here is directed (volitional or intentional) action.

Related Topic