"The ability to act fast can make all the difference"
There is a commercial for Shell Gas that starts with this sentence. It bugs me every time I hear it.
I think they are using 'fast' incorrectly. It's an adjective and they are using it as an adverb.
What do you think?
*sigh* I think you're right, though I sometimes find it quite aggravating.
It's not the pace-the-floor, pound-fist-on-desk type of aggravation; more like the "the milk smells like it's going to go bad about an hour after you drink it" or "you can't find your reading glasses and the writing is too small, so you don't know how the vet wants your to give these suspiciously suppository-looking pills to your dog to cure his cough" type of aggravation.
It's an adjective and they are using it as an adverb.It's been an adverb for ever so long a time: Chaucer
uses it as an adjective and as an adverb amongst other parts of speech. You are kidding, right?
You are kidding, right?
Nope. It really bugs me. It doesn't fit the sentence at all and trips off of your tongue when you say it.
When I was a lad it was common practice (amongst the lads) to toss something (it could have been most anything, up to but not including an actual, live hand granade) at someone whilst screaming "Think Fast!!" -- the yell being intended to put one off ones game.
I don' think we were playing at Chaucer back in the 50s, nor did we give the matter of proper grammar much of a glimmer; but acting fast (or quickly) was certainly required.
'zactly as I 'member it, tsuwm.
oh, of course, we allus' said "think fastly!"....
In an effort to promote the mental health of all I urge the prescriptivists in our midst not to take it all so seriously
FWIW, noted today in Recent DVD Releases:
The initial Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre, 1937) film was titled Think Fast, Mr. Moto.
