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We could say

it was painted beautifully

to convey that the way it was painted was beautiful. "beautifully" being the adverbal form of beautiful (an adjective).

What if the adjective is "lovely": How would you convey that the way it was painted was lovely? Is it:

it was painted lovelyly

This sounds/feels weird and I have never heard/seen it used.
Furtherm "it was painted lovely" seems an error of grammar.

Is there a rule/guideline that adjectives ending in "ly" have no adverbal form and can't be used as adverbs? Or should we just use the adjectival form for the adverb even if it is grammatically incorrect?

Bohemian
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  • Have you tried looking up "lovely" and "lovelyly" in a dictionary? Not all adjectives have corresponding adverbs. – alphabet Jun 17 '23 at 02:14
  • That's a bit like asking whether the plural of bunny is ❌bunnys, or whether the past of tally is ❌tallyd: we actually do have rules about these things. – tchrist Jun 17 '23 at 02:39
  • You can say "it was painted lovingly" but the meaning isn't the same. Perhaps "It was painted beautifully". – Weather Vane Jun 17 '23 at 11:38
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    The deleted answer by Heartspring suggested lovelily. One example of this is "So lovelily the morning shone" in Byron's The Bride Of Abydos – Henry Jun 18 '23 at 00:36

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