I need to know whether it is possible to substitute the following bold part with the adveb "nakedly" in a manner that it doesn't change the meaning and doesn't make it ambiguous:

  • She went to street with nothing on in broad daylight and people were shocked looking at her!

Is it natural to say:

  • She went to street nakedly in broad daylight and people were shocked looking at her!

I've rearely faced people use the word "nakedly" and this is why I doubt if somehow to a native speaker's ears it sounds a bit weird!


No, "nakedly" is not commonly used in this sense. It can be used "obviously (and unpleasantly)". Cambridge gives the example sentence:

This is a nakedly racist organisation.

Meaning that they do not try to hide this fact.

It is possible to use "naked" adverbially (or as a predicate adjective, or a appositive adjective, modifying "she"):

She went out naked on the street and in broad daylight. People were shocked looking at her!

She lay on the beach, naked as the day she was born.

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    I've slightly changed your example to make it better. – James K Apr 14 '19 at 9:19
  • thank you very much, I doubted if "naked" which is an adjective can work as an adverb too in this sense! – A-friend Apr 14 '19 at 9:51
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    @JamesK I think "naked" in your examples is not really an adverb. In one, it is a predicate adjective used with a copular verb other than "be". We omit the "-ly" in "go naked" for the same reason as in "run wild", "freeze solid", or "fall silent". In the other example, I would take "naked" as an appositive adjective modifying "she" (but we can also say "lie naked" as a predicate). – nanoman Apr 14 '19 at 11:09
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    I agree with nanoman, and in my experience this is one of the more difficult aspects of English for foreign learners, especially because native speakers usually cannot explain or analyse why it is correct one way and not another, they just "know it when they see it". – Robert Furber Apr 14 '19 at 12:19
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    +1 for "adverbially". – Nat Apr 15 '19 at 0:19

The suffix -ly is English often has similar meaning to the suffix -like, forming an adjective which means "having the same qualities as something" - for example motherly, childlike.

So in the OP's sentence "she went to the street nakedly" could mean something like "she went to the street behaving in the same way as if she was naked" but that is probably not the meaning which was intended.

If she literally went out wearing no clothes, the correct adjective is "naked".

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    The suffix -ly is also used to turn adjectives into adverbs. "She went to Main Street quickly." "She went silently into the street." But in the question, "naked" does not describe the manner of going in the way "quickly" or "silently" would; as this answer correctly observes, it more aptly describes the condition she was in when she went. – David K Apr 14 '19 at 12:07

As an add-on to other answers. In rare cases, such as in poetry, "nakedly" can be used to mean "with nothing on":

She has thrown her bonnet by;
And her feet she has been dipping
In the shallow water’s flow—
Now she holds them nakedly
In her hands, all sleek and dripping,
While she rocketh to and fro.

(The Romance of the Swan's Nest)


1)She went to street with nothing on in broad daylight and people were shocked looking at her! 2)She went to street nakedly in broad daylight and people were shocked looking at her! Both of them are correct. I prefer saying the first one, because the second one is a little odd to me. I mean if you feel a little uncomfortable using the word 'nakedly', you can use 'with nothing on.'

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