[Vocabulary] Which adverbs fit the sentence?

[brianbrian]

Suppose that my hockey team had a game with Team X. At the end of the game, Team X beat us with a final score of 15 to 1.

(ex) My team was ___ defeated.

(1) harshly
(2) grimly
(3) cruelly
(4) sadly
(5) comprehensively
(6) thoroughly

I know the meaning of each adverb above. Because I am not a native English speaker, they all make sense in the sentence to me. At least, when I translate them into my native language, they seem to make sense to me.

Could someone please explain my sentence? Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Brian:

Great question. I do not know whether I can help you very much, for you say that all those words seem to be synonyms in your language.

Here is an idea: change the sentence back to the active voice:

1. Team X harshly defeated our team.
2. Team X grimly defeated our team.
3. Team X cruelly defeated our team.
4. Team X sadly defeated our team.
5. Team X comprehensively defeated our team.
6. Team X thoroughly defeated our team.


In my OPINION, "thoroughly" seems to be the best choice. That is, Team X did a thorough / complete job in defeating us.

I can understand how difficult it is to understand the different meanings of English words. It is also difficult for many native speakers, such as I.

I will now make up sentences using those other words (I will use the adjectival form).

Whipping people is a harsh punishment.
His chances of getting a job are grim.
Some people on the Internet say cruel things about other people.
She was sad when her dog died.
That school offers a comprehensive education.



"Comprehensive" and "thorough" can often have about the same meaning. I do not think, however, that "comprehensive" would work in your sentence.

"Sadly" would work if it described your feelings: "Sadly, my team was defeated." But your sentence seems to emphasize HOW your team was defeated: "My team was thoroughly / totally / completely / decisively / crushingly defeated."



James

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I agree with James. (6) 'thoroughly' is the most natural and (5) 'comprehensively' would be my second choice.

(1) and (2) don't work for me. (3) sounds literary and (4) would be more of a sentence adverb than one actually describing how the team was defeated.

 

[SoothingDave]

I am not a teacher.

I agree with James. (6) 'thoroughly' is the most natural and (5) 'comprehensively' would be my second choice.

(1) and (2) don't work for me. (3) sounds literary and (4) would be more of a sentence adverb than one actually describing how the team was defeated.

I agree, but I can't imagine any sportswriter actually saying "comprehensively" to describe a game. "Badly" would seem to be the best word for this sentence.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would use "soundly". I don't like any of the original 6.

 

[brianbrian]

Suppose that my hockey team had a game with Team X. At the end of the game, Team X beat us with a final score of 15 to 1.

(ex) My team was ___ defeated.

(1) harshly
(2) grimly
(3) cruelly
(4) sadly
(5) comprehensively
(6) thoroughly

I know the meaning of each adverb above. Because I am not a native English speaker, they all make sense in the sentence to me. At least, when I translate them into my native language, they seem to make sense to me.

Could someone please explain my sentence? Thanks a lot for your help.

Thank you for all your comments. May I ask any forum members to explain a few more adverbs before I leave this post?

(7) awfully
(8) terribly
(9) absolutely
(10) heartbreakingly
(11) shamefully

Thank you very much for your time again.

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

I agree with MikeNY that "soundly" would be entirely appropriate and, here, I prefer it to "thoroughly". However, unlike Mike and SDave, I also find "comprehensively defeated/beaten" to be very natural and I both hear and read this form in a sports context quite frequently. The examples I find on fraze-it and after a bit of Googling seem to be mostly from UK/Aust/NZ sources.