Which sentence is correct?
"I had more customers than usual."
"I had more customers than usually."
"More than usual" sounds pretty common, but "more than usually" seems more correct when I think about it. There seem to be more adverb adjective conflicts like this, for example "drive safe" vs. "drive safely", which was explained here: Which is correct: "drive safe" or "drive safely"?. Is the rule the same in case of "more than usual"?
Best Answer
When shortened forms become idiomatic, it may be better not to try to identify parts of speech within them.
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BUT
This becomes far more ambiguous when one tries to recover the undeleted form of say
With 'more ... than usual', it can be very hard to determine the undeleted original (which may not have been used in particular cases anyway). This means that attempts at logical analysis are going to be unconvincing.
As CalifJim says on EnglishForums:
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With simpler forms such as think big, drive safe, work smarter, take it nice and easy, adjectives are being used (perhaps unconventionally – often for emphasis) as [if they were] adverbs. The acceptability of this practice, and other considerations, have been addressed here before. Look up flat adverbs, eg at 'Using short adjectives as adverbs, such as “easy” & “short” '.