acceptable/acceptably difference

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kiann

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I need to propose an idea acceptable/acceptably to the committee.

I think acceptable/acceptably are acceptable.
 

Raymott

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They can't possibly be both right and mean the same thing.
Do you mean you have to propose the idea acceptably, or that the idea you propose must be acceptable to the committee?
Naturally, the adjective qualifies the noun 'ídea' - and acceptable idea; and the adverb modifies the verb 'propose'.
You can propose an acceptable idea unacceptably. "Hey, dudes, you'll never guess what I thought of! - <insert acceptable idea>."

To save you some trouble, no two words ending in 'able' and 'ably' can mean the same thing. And this applies to most adjective/adverb pairs.
 

kiann

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They can't possibly be both right and mean the same thing.
Do you mean you have to propose the idea acceptably, or that the idea you propose must be acceptable to the committee?
Naturally, the adjective qualifies the noun 'ídea' - and acceptable idea; and the adverb modifies the verb 'propose'.
You can propose an acceptable idea unacceptably. "Hey, dudes, you'll never guess what I thought of! - <insert acceptable idea>."

To save you some trouble, no two words ending in 'able' and 'ably' can mean the same thing. And this applies to most adjective/adverb pairs.
You are right, but i still have trouble.
Even though "acceptable" are better than "acceptably" , I think "acceptably" meet with grammar as well.
I don't know when to use adjective or adverb in this condition. Because i think both are workable and not too big difference.
 
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Raymott

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Well, you are simply wrong. There's a great deal of difference. I've given you a clear example.
You use an adjective to qualify a noun, and an adverb to modify a verb. There's potentially a huge difference. In this case, the difference is merely very large.
 

kiann

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Well, you are simply wrong. There's a great deal of difference. I've given you a clear example.
You use an adjective to qualify a noun, and an adverb to modify a verb. There's potentially a huge difference. In this case, the difference is merely very large.
Even though i know there are difference between both ,I still don't know how to choose in this condition.

Thank a lot.
 

Raymott

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What you need to do is work out what you want to say.
"I need to propose an idea acceptable to the committee". This means that the idea you propose must be acceptable. You can propose it as rudely or as unacceptably as you like, because 'acceptable' refers to the idea(noun), since acceptable is an adjective.
"I need to propose an idea acceptably to the committee". This means the opposite of the above. The idea can be rubbish, pure nonsense. But you have to propose it acceptably, politely, with good manners. That is because 'acceptably' is an adverb and must refer to the way you propose the idea. It has no bearing on the quality of the idea.
"I angrily shouted at the woman"; "I shouted at the angry woman." Can you not see a difference there?
 

tedmc

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I need to propose an idea acceptable/acceptably to the committee.

The sentence is the same as:

I need to propose an acceptable idea to the committee.

Does it sound right to you if you replace the word with:

I need to propose an acceptably idea to the committee ?

not a teacher
 

emsr2d2

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No. You cannot say "an acceptably idea" because "acceptably" is not an adjective. Therefore, it can't go between an article and a noun.

I need to propose an idea [which is] acceptable to the committee.
I need to acceptably propose an idea to the committee.

The first means that you will propose an acceptable idea.
The second means that you propose an idea and you will do that in an acceptable way/manner/fashion. You will do it acceptably.
 

tedmc

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I know that; the sentence was transposed to show the difference of using the two words more clearly.

not a teacher
 

emsr2d2

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Sorry, tedmc, I mistakenly thought that the OP had written the post I was replying to and was actually asking "Does it sound right to you if ...?"
 
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