Can you say most importantly

While many English speakers may be divided on their preferences, writers of usage guides now accept both. Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation. And check out our books about the English language. Enter your email address to subscribe to the Blog by email. If you are an old subscriber and not getting posts, please subscribe again. Email Address. Learn more. Asked 7 years ago.

Active 5 years ago. Viewed k times. However watching Apple presentations I've noticed they always say "most importantly". Could you please explain how to use this correctly? But most importantly , Gallo said, it's evident that Cook cares deeply about Apple.

Improve this question. Most important vs most importantly: motivatedgrammar. First, check some basic reference sources. Also, previous Qs here. Please show some background effort. Try Qs. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. He goes on to say: The criticism of more importantly and most importantly has always been rather muted and obscure, and today it has dwindled to something less than muted and obscure.

Improve this answer. Athanasius Athanasius 2, 2 2 gold badges 17 17 silver badges 18 18 bronze badges. Most importantly what is most important is that , Bob is dead. Community Bot 1.

I don't know why but it killed me. We can hear Dylan's beefy piano, his contemplation of the necessity of seclusion …, but most importantly we can feel his invigorating involvement with music again.

Since the s, 'more importantly' has seen a steady rise in use, while 'more important' has declined. People who fancied themselves experts on English at the time undistracted, we assume, by the image of Bob Dylan with a beefy piano bemoaned such appearances of the adverb importantly where they believed the adjective important belonged. They felt better when they encountered sentences like this one:. More important, particularly for hunters … the arrow can be held at full draw long enough and steadily enough to take precise aim.

The objection to sentences of the first type tended to be grammatical: importantly is an adverb, which means it's best suited for modifying verbs; what verb is it modifying in "we can feel his invigorating involvement with music"? Certainly not feel. More importantly , the bemoaners asserted, modifies nothing in the sentence.

But what of sentences of the second type? Important is an adjective; was it modifying a noun, as adjectives are wont to do? No, more important in the same context as more importantly has the same problem as the adverb. Unless, of course, it doesn't. And so more important , it was helpfully postulated, was actually part of the longer phrase "what is more important," with an imagined ellipsis sweeping the "what is" away in the final version.

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Improve this question. Serrated Symphony Serrated Symphony 1 1 gold badge 5 5 silver badges 10 10 bronze badges. More importantly, I think the sentence is inherently ungrammatical in the first place. If the sentiment needs to be expressed, it should be "A picture speaks a thousand words; more importantly, it does so in a fraction of a second".

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. I feel: "A picture says a thousand words, more importantly in a fraction of a second" sounds better. Improve this answer. It depends what you want to express. Neither sentence is particularly elegant. I suggest: A picture says a thousand words - importantly, in a fraction of a second. Also note that the familiar phrase is "A picture is worth a thousand words.

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