Which one is the correct use?
She judged him wrong.
She judged him wrongly.
Or, are both correct, but have slightly different meanings?
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The English Chicken
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Somewhat vaguely related: “Well” and “good” for how photographs come out. – ShreevatsaR Mar 11 '11 at 18:14
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She might, of course, have wrongly judged him wrong. – Tim Lymington Jun 24 '11 at 22:52
2 Answers
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She judged him wrong.
This means she decided he was wrong in something he did or said.
She judged him wrongly.
This means the error was hers.
Usually you would express that this way:
She judged him unfairly.
But wrongly works as well.
RedGrittyBrick
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Robusto
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6And, just a note that "she judged him wrong" can also mean @Robusto's definition of "she judged him wrongly" in casual use (because we often can informally leave off the -ly suffix in adverbs). – Kosmonaut Mar 11 '11 at 14:29
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Interesting; frankly this casual sense is the first one that comes to mind when I read "she judged him wrong" (might be just me). Odd. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Mar 11 '11 at 15:00
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@Cerberus, I agree (I'm always looking up adverbs and I find I try to write without 'em). With "She judged him wrong," to get the meaning that "he was wrong" out of it, I have to put a mental "to be" in there: "She judged him [to be] wrong." – aedia λ Jun 30 '11 at 17:01
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There are two different structures. "Wrong" may be either the complement of the verb (what she judged him to be) or an adverb modifying the verb (how she did the judging).
As others have said, "wrongly" can only be the adverb, but "wrong" can be either - though in more formal use, it would tend to be used only as the complement.
Colin Fine
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