using tearfully

[alpacinou]

Hello.

Can I use "tearfully" as an adverb at the end of a sentence?

Is this correct and natural?

"Could you please stay another day?" he pleaded, tearfully.

 

[alpacinou]

Sorry, but could you please confirm if this is okay and natural as well?

He tearfully strolled through the images of his ex wife on the his phone.

 

[GoesStation]

You're getting into dangerous stylistic territory with these sentences. Try Eyes welling with tears, he scrolled through the images of his ex-wife. Note the hyphen.

 

[alpacinou]

You're getting into dangerous stylistic territory with these sentences. Try Eyes welling with tears, he scrolled through the images of his ex-wife. Note the hyphen.

What do you mean by dangerous? Is there something wrong with using "tearfully"?

 

[GoesStation]

I'm deeply sorry to be asking this because the thread is straying, but what verb do I use which means to go through the pictures in your phone's gallery?

"Scroll".

 

[alpacinou]

"Scroll".

Yes I edited my post immediately after I saw your sentence.

So, is there something wrong or dangerous about using "tearfully"?

 

[GoesStation]

So, is there something wrong or dangerous about using "tearfully"?

I've discussed the excessive use of adverbs before. I'm neither a writer nor an editor, so I'll just quote Stephen King: “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” Read this page for a detailed discussion of the perils of adverb dependency.

 

[tzfujimino]

Thank you for the article, GS.
It's very informative for me, at least.

 

[GoesStation]

Whilst I agree that some people over-use adverbs, I think that caution about their use can be taken to excess. @'yes welling with tears' may be more elegant than 'tearfully', but I see nothing wrong with the latter.

A bit of advice early in the page I linked to really makes sense to me: rather than showing the reader how something happened, adverbs tend to tell them.