Adverbs
Hi, there

I know you can say, “That is exactly/precisely/specifically what we are/were talking about” But what if I eant to reverse the order(or should I say the ORDERING??) of this sentence? Should I say “We were talking PRECISELY/EXACTLY/SPECIFICALLY about that” or “We were talking about PRECISELY/EXACTLY/SPECIFICALLY THAT”?

Should the adverb come before or after “about”?

Question

Adverbs
Hi, there

I know you can say, “That is exactly/precisely/specifically what we are/were talking about” But what if I eant to reverse the order(or should I say the ORDERING??) of this sentence? Should I say “We were talking PRECISELY/EXACTLY/SPECIFICALLY about that” or “We were talking about PRECISELY/EXACTLY/SPECIFICALLY THAT”?

Should the adverb come before or after “about”?

Answer

Hi Fernando. Dave is right in saying that, typically, adverbs come after the verbs they modify, unless the verb "be" is emphasized, as in " I never was a fan of hers." So for your stated question the answer would be, "That is precisely/specifically/exactly what we were talking about." Also, the correct word would be "order." "Ordering" in this case is a gerund, and, although it is the -ing form of the verb used as a noun, it is more idiomatically correct to use the more common form "order." Hope this helps.

Answer

Thank you!! And should I say order or ordering?

Answer

Generally, the adverb is placed after the verb (were talking) that it modifies. However, we may place it elsewhere for emphasis (eg. next to the word "that").

Answer

Is it wrong to say it the other way?

Answer

The correct order of the words in the second case is "we were talking precisely/exactly/specifically about that"

Answers · 7

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