Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:
IMPORTANT / IMPORTANTLY
The grammatical difference between these two words is that important is an adjective used to describe a noun or pronoun while importantly is an adverb used to describe a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
CORRECT: Galileo made important contributions to science in the seventeenth century.
ALSO CORRECT: Galileo importantly contributed to man’s knowledge of the universe in the seventeenth century.
The confusion for us writers (and speakers) arises mainly in relation to the phrase more important/importantly. If you are using the phrase to mean “what is more important is that,” then the proper word to use would be important.
INCORRECT: More importantly, further development of this type of energy source could help save not only mankind but all life on this planet.
CORRECT: More important, further development of this type of energy source could help save not only mankind but all life on this planet.
INCORRECT: Senator Smith spoke more important on the subject than did Senator Jones.
CORRECT: Senator Smith spoke more importantly on the subject than did Senator Jones.
When trying to decide whether to use the phrase more important or more importantly, it may help to think whether you could substitute “this [whatever it is that you are talking about now] is more important than that [of which you had been speaking]. In such a case, the proper phrase would be more important.
NOTE: In the vast majority of cases where more important/importantly is used as an introductory comment, the correct phrase to use will be “more important.”
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