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Inclusive or inclusively?

Question:

Should I use inclusive or inclusively when referring to a range of dates? Which of the following is correct?

  1. I collected the information from March 1 to April 25, inclusively.

  2. I collected the information from March 1 to April 25 inclusive.

Answer:

Sentence 2 is correct.

Because inclusive is an adjective, it must modify a noun. In the sentence I collected the information from March 1 to April 25 inclusive, "March 1" and "April 25" function as nouns. Therefore, the adjective inclusive—and not the adverb inclusively—is the correct choice.

In this case, inclusively is incorrect because it is an adverb and would have to modify the verb collected. It would mean that the information is collected inclusively, which makes no sense.