| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| direct (adv., adj.), directly (adv.) |
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| Direct can, of course, serve as an adjective before a noun: They began to use direct mail. The flat adverb direct and the -ly form directly are interchangeable in some uses: I went direct [directly] to the station. But direct cannot interchange with directly as a modifier immediately preceding the adjective or phrase it modifies: I sat directly in front of the speaker; She was more directly outspoken than her sister. Directly will also modify a preceding verb, if a prepositional phrase follows (The tree fell directly on the parked car), and it has some other uses that the flat adverb direct cannot perform: meaning “at once,” as in I’ll be there directly; meaning “sometime soon, after a while,” as in We expect to reach home directly, as long as the horses give no trouble; and meaning “as soon as,” as in Directly we get our visas we’ll be on our way. All three of these uses are in one sense or another dialectal. The first is predominantly British, the second predominantly old-fashioned American, perhaps mainly South Midland and Southern, and the third predominantly British (in the United States it is frequently labeled Nonstandard, and in Britain some commentators consider it suitable only for Informal use). See also IMMEDIATELY. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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