briefly
part of speech
adverb
meaning for a pupil
1) Briefly means for a short time («I briefly saw her»). tree →
2) Briefly means in a few words, without many details («Tell me briefly what happened»). tree →
sense in the lessons
In school, «briefly explain» or «describe briefly» in a question means give a short answer with the main points; summaries are brief. In everyday life it describes short moments and short talks. Similar: «quickly», «shortly», «in short». Phrases: «briefly explain», «put briefly», «paused briefly».
examples
- Briefly explain how a plant makes food. tree →
- The sun came out briefly before the rain started again. tree →
- She paused briefly before answering. tree →
- Tell me briefly what the story is about. tree →
- We stopped briefly at the shop on the way home. tree →
- The lights went out briefly during the storm. tree →
- Put briefly, we lost because we didn't practise. tree →
- He spoke briefly to the class about safety. tree →
- One of the strange rules which the Spartans had, was that they should speak briefly, and never use more words than were needed. tree →
note
From «brief» (short) + «-ly». Trap: «briefly» is about short time or few words; it does not mean «quickly done badly». In a test, «briefly» means one or two sentences, not a long essay.
In the corpora
- It was reported that fake AI pictures of an explosion near a famous building spread online and briefly worried people.
- Squinting briefly makes the view sharper and does not damage eyes; needing to squint is a sign to get an eye test.
- Each team member presents part of the argument clearly and briefly.
- Laughing at someone for a long time makes them scared to try; laugh briefly with them, then help.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «briefly» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.