seldom, seldomly

Because most adverbs end in ly, some people mistakenly add ly to the adverb seldom. However, seldomly is non-standard English and should be avoided.

Instead, use seldom, the correct adverb form:

  • Ontarians seldom (not seldomly) have such warm weather in October.

In more formal constructions, the adverb seldom can be used at the beginning of a sentence, with the helping verb before the subject:

  • Seldom do we learn from a first mistake.
    [Here, the helping verb do is placed before the subject we.]

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