quietly

«quietly» in Mova's school dictionary: Making little or no noise: "Close the door quietly." — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adverb (quietly, more quietly, most quietly)

meaning for a pupil

1) Making little or no noise: "Close the door quietly." tree →

2) Calmly, without fuss: "She quietly helped." tree →

3) In a gentle, low voice: "He spoke quietly." tree →

sense in the lessons

In school: work quietly, walk quietly in corridors. In everyday life: speak quietly in libraries, hospitals and places of worship; at night be quiet so others can sleep. In stories it often shows sneaking or calm. Phrases: quietly confident, sit quietly.

examples

• Please work quietly. tree →
• The cat crept quietly towards the bird. tree →
• Walk quietly in the hall. tree →
• She spoke quietly so the baby could sleep. tree →
• He quietly put the money back. tree →
• Close the door quietly. tree →
• We sat quietly in the library. tree →
• The snow fell quietly all night. tree →
• He lay down and quietly fell asleep. tree →

note

"Quietly" describes how something is done; "quiet" describes a noun or comes after "be": "be quiet" (not "be quietly"). Don't confuse with "quite" or "quit".

In the corpora

• Later that week, Dad says quietly that Mum has been low for weeks and the doctor says it is depression.
• Scene: in Sydney in March 2024, Mum puts her phone down quietly.
• Real cats hunt mice by waiting quietly and pouncing, and many well-fed pet cats are not very interested in hunting.
• As they leave, Alice hears the King quietly tell everyone «You are all pardoned», and she feels glad.
• They jump about like mad things while explaining, then suddenly sit down sadly and quietly.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «quietly» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.