Can we put any adverb that ending with-ly at the beginning of a sentence?
Sometimes, it ’s quite difficult for me to decide where I can put an adverb in a sentence so I wonder if I can put any adverb which ending with-ly at the beginning of a sentence or not. It might be easier for me.
Like these.
Quietly, the teacher asked the children to finish their game.
Hurriedly, she typed the email.
Freely, you can speak.
Loudly and convincingly, Jonathan spoke about the advantages of
leasing rather than buying cars.
Best Answer
Where you put an adverb or adverbial phrase depends on what it is you want to modify.
Before a sentence an adverbial is taken to modify the entire sentence; in other positions its scope may be more restricted.
For instance, in your first example, quietly may be placed at the beginning or after teacher if it modifies the main clause, but if it is placed at the end it will be understood to modify the subordinate clause to finish their game. The same constraints operate on your last example, except leasing ... cars loudly and convincingly makes no sense; consequently you will not be misunderstood if you put loudly and convincingly at the end. (But you should not do so, since this will create a momentary confusion.)
In the second example, which contains only a single clause, the adverbial may be placed at the beginning, after she, or at the end.
The third example is tricky. This sentence must be parsed You [can [speak {freely}], not You [[can speak] {freely}]: freely modifies only the lexical verb speak, not the permission or concession expressed by can, so freely must be placed after speak.