Contrary

[Grablevskij]

I'm sitting for examinations and learning topics. This one is Modern parenting. I don't remember exactly where I took it, but somewhere in the Internet. So, could you have a look:

This example and a lot of other ones shows that modern parents have to do everything contrary to the ways that their own parents did them.

I suppose contrary is not right for this sentence as it is an adjective and it can't modify a verb (to do). Am I right that we need an adverb here? My fantasy failed to change it, could you help?


Michael

 

[buggles]

This seems to me another example of how wrong grammar can become acceptable through usage.
".....do things contrarily is more correct, but in fact sounds clumsy.
Many native speakers would use contrary rather than contrarily because it "sounds right".
I think they instinctively feel that the contrary refers to the ways so the use of an adjective to qualify this noun seems correct in this context.