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I'm working on a tshirt and want to use the phrase

"Doing it healthy and safe."

Or should it be

"Doing it healthy and safely."

mplungjan
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Kathi
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  • Merriam-Webster lists 'safe' as an adverb, but I think that's as a result of common usage. Similar to how you hear 'drive safe' a lot. Thus, one could argue for "...healthy and safe". – trpt4him Sep 12 '13 at 20:10
  • I work in transportation government and I remember seeing "Drive Safe" on a video screen at a ballgame and people were like it should be "Drive Safely." Healthy and safe actually sounds better than healthy and safely but that doesn't make it correct. Thanks for thinking it out with me. – Kathi Sep 12 '13 at 20:16
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    I think both versions are a bit quirky. I'm accustomed to hearing things like "Drive safe!" instead of "Drive safely!", but in OP's context I think I'd be expecting the true adverbial form healthily*. – FumbleFingers Sep 12 '13 at 20:22
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    @FumbleFingers Definitely agree, if using "safely" instead of "safe", I would prefer "healthily" over "healthy". – called2voyage Sep 12 '13 at 20:28

1 Answers1

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Those dang -y endings. Hard to make it snappy and rhyme, since when one word gets the -y, the other loses it! So "health and safety" becomes "healthy and safe"... hrm.

"Doing it healthily and safely" would be the correct, formal-writing form. But it is a bit wordy and not very snappy.

"Doing it healthy and safe" will raise some eyebrows from grammar prescriptionists, but is acceptable in speech in many dialects: it's probably fine to use in casual speech, or on a t-shirt, just not in formal writing. Some people will probably dislike the slogan for being "wrong", but hey, it's a conversation starter at least!

"Doing it healthy and safely" mixes the forms of the words, and feels very awkward because of that, despite the fact that both get the -y ending, which sounds nicer.

You could consider alternatives like "Doing it in health and safety!", maybe?

Dewi Morgan
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