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Wow, I had no idea that people responding to this post would be so "nit picky"!!! I just wanted an answer on what the proper form of the phrase "fail fast" to use?

Adverbs do not need to end in -ly, although many do...

The word fail in this phrase is being used as a verb and the word fast as an adverb. The Agile mindset intends for the team members to get to a point of failure in a more rapid method over the typical Waterfall method of software development.

I was always taught that to determine what adverb to use would be sopmething along the lines of:

"How do you want to fail?" which would indicate how you want to modify the verb. In my opinion, the correct answer to that question is "I want to fail faster", not "I want to fail fast"!

Is that question in a more acceptable format?

Original Question below: Ok, I just took an Agile training class and one of their key phrases is "fail fast".

I believe that this is improper form and should be fail faster?

I had a lengthy discussion with the instructor who refused to consider that the phrase might be incorrect, even though I mentioned that a second popular phrase associated with Agile programming is "Fail Fast, Succeed Faster".

Who is correct???

Picky1
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Bill
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    Why do you think the comparative is necessary even in contexts where there's no obvious candidate for the "fast, but so fast as this one" referent? If you're a passenger in a moving car you can say to the driver "Drive faster!", but that would be a bit odd in a stationary car. This looks like a seriously misguided peeve to me. – FumbleFingers Mar 02 '15 at 20:01
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    Welcome to EL&U. Could you edit your post to explain why you think it is an improper form? Some would complain, against evidence, that fast should only be used as an adjective (thus fail quickly), but faster is also an adjective form, and this does not seem to be the thrust of your concern. – choster Mar 02 '15 at 20:01
  • Fast, faster, fastest. I don't see the issue. – Minnow Mar 02 '15 at 20:13
  • So it's okay in "fail fast, succeed faster", but not okay as just "fail fast"? I don't understand how your mention of the longer phrase was supposed to support your point. – Hellion Mar 02 '15 at 20:27
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    Let me introduce you to a Japanese word that gets play in agile/lean circles: "shuhari". Shuhari is a compound word: shu="obey", ha="detach", ri="transcend". The idea is that to learn a very foreign concept (agile is initially pretty foreign for many of us), you must first do what you're taught. It's not always immediately obvious why we do things. Then you can begin asking intelligent questions and trying new things ("ha"). Finally you can begin devising new strategies and teaching others ("ri"). Debating about "fast" or "faster" means you're not in "shu" mode, and you're tough to teach. – Calphool Mar 02 '15 at 22:47
  • Apparently, Hotels.com actually managed to register ’Hotels.com wake up happy’ as a trademark. If OP had been working for the registration service at the time, would he have told them it had to be "wake up happier" ??? – FumbleFingers Mar 02 '15 at 23:39
  • How in the world are we supposed to be able to answer this question when you don't even tell us what ‘fail fast’ means to begin with? Your question doesn't even make it clear whether you're talking about software development or dog training! – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 03 '15 at 01:16
  • It's jargon. Don't worry about it. – Hot Licks Mar 03 '15 at 16:00
  • So you posted to a "Serious Language Enthusiasts" site and didn't expect people to be nitpicky??? :-) – Hellion Mar 05 '15 at 19:46
  • "Who is correct???" Neither of you. Failure in agile programming is rather more binary: it works or it doesn't; it's better or it's not. Describing it as a rate isn't very accurate. The adverb you're looking for is sooner, it just lacks the ‘buzz’ of fast and faster. – Walf Mar 14 '17 at 04:42

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Fail fast is grammatically correct because the word fast can be used as an adverb. The word faster can also be used as an adverb, so Fail faster is also valid, but unnecessary in this case.

Fail is a verb, so any modifier of it must be an adverb (as opposed to an adjective). For instance, Fail bad is invalid, since bad is an adjective. Fail badly is valid, since badly is an adverb. You may be thinking that the phrase "Fail fast" sounds wrong because it needs the ly ending to make it an adverb (i.e. "fail fastly"). However, as is the case with the word fast, not all adverbs end in ly. Fast can be used, as is, both as an adjective and as an adverb (e.g. fast car; stop fast).

When fast is used as an adjective to describe speed, it is a synonym of the word quick. When it is used as an adverb to describe speed, it is a synonym of the word quickly.

Steven Doggart
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