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Jack steadily progressed, noticeably through increased eye contact and a louder voice.

In this sentence, which one is grammatically right, 'noticeable' or 'noticeably'?

Here, I'd like to express that I noticed his progress and change from our increased eye contact and his louder voice when he gave a speech in English. He is an English language learner who is at beginner level. And I am his English tutor.

Iris Gao
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    If you want to say that he "progressed through increased eye contact..", then noticeably is your choice. – CowperKettle Dec 28 '15 at 05:17
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    Here, I'd like to express that I noticed his progress and change from our increased eye contact and his louder voice when he gave a speech in English. He is an English language learner who is at beginner level. And I am his English tutor. – Iris Gao Dec 28 '15 at 05:30

1 Answers1

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Jack steadily progressed, noticeably through increased eye contact and a louder voice.

In this example, noticeably modifies his progress (progressed). So you would use an adverb (noticeably) to modify a verb.
To use the adjective form you would have it modify a noun:

Jack steadily progressed, through noticeable eye contact and a louder voice.

user3169
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  • +1 I guess we can also write "Jack steadily progressed, noticeable through increased eye contact and a louder voice." -- but that would mean that "Jack, a noticeable person thanks to increased eye contact and a louder voice, steadily progressed." The meaning will change. – CowperKettle Dec 28 '15 at 08:58
  • So with the word 'noticeable', it wouldn't be the same meaning as what I stated before, i.e., his progress is noticeable as I can tell from our increased eye contact. Do I understand correctly? So, in conclusion, it should be the word 'noticeably', right? – Iris Gao Dec 28 '15 at 12:01
  • You said "I noticed his progress" which relates notice to progress. But "his progress is noticeable" is different, because intransitive verb to be makes notice relate to his (Jack). – user3169 Dec 28 '15 at 16:30