Who decides where a generation ends? Adverb + adjective collocations: widely used, hotly debated

Q: What are adverb + adjective collocations?

They're an adverb and an adjective that often go together : widely used , highly connected , fully aware , hotly debated . The second word is often a past participle, as in used or debated . Writers and speakers reach for these pairs again and again, so learning them as chunks makes English sound natural. The B2 lesson Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai teaches ten of them through generation labels.

Q: How do you form adverb + adjective collocations?

Make the adverb from an adjective, usually with -ly ( wide → widely , full → fully , heavy → heavily ), and put it right before the adjective or participle : a widely used name , not a used widely name . After be , keep the participle: Ulric is strongly opposed to labels , not strongly oppose . The scheme in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai lists nine adverbs with the words they go with.

Q: What are some examples of adverb + adjective collocations?

Five from Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai: Gen Z is now a widely used name. Gen Z grew up in a highly connected world. The Baby Boom is closely linked to a rise in births. Pew is fully aware that its cutoffs aren't exact. The new parking rule was heavily criticized. In each pair, the -ly adverb comes first .

Q: Is it “highly connected” or “high connected”?

It's highly connected : use the -ly adverb, not the adjective , before an adjective or a past participle. The same goes for deeply influenced (not deep influenced ), strongly opposed (not strong opposed ) and hotly debated (not hot debated ). These four slips are the common mistakes in Who decides where a generation ends? , a B2 lesson on edio.ai, and its chat uses them as wrong replies.

Q: What's the difference between “hotly debated” and “widely debated”?

Both are correct, with a small change in meaning . Hotly debated means people argue about it with strong feelings; widely debated means many people in many places discuss it. In the same way, heavily influenced and deeply influenced are both fine. Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai teaches the strongest pairs first, and its drills never mark a second correct adverb wrong: they test forms such as hot against hotly .

Q: What are the generation years, and who decides them?

According to Pew, only the Baby Boom has an official name , from the U.S. Census Bureau: 1946 to 1964. Pew Research Center uses 1965 to 1980 for Generation X and 1981 to 1996 for Millennials; anyone born from 1997 on is Gen Z. In January 2019, Pew explained that it had picked 1996 a year earlier, calling its cutoffs not an exact science, but not arbitrary. Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai tells the story.

Q: Where does the term “digital native” come from?

It began as a teaching idea : a 2001 journal article about how schools should teach students raised with computers made the term popular. It's now widely used, but a 2008 review found the idea of a special “digital native” generation weakly supported by evidence. It's one of the surprising facts in Isaiah's explainer in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai, along with the names Pew almost gave Gen Z: the iGeneration and Homelanders.

Q: How do I teach adverb + adjective collocations to B2 students?

Treat each pair as one chunk of vocabulary : students find pairs in a text, sort them by adverb and notice that the adverb ends in -ly and comes first. Then drill the spelling and the slips, such as high connected . Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai moves from Isaiah's explainer and an office argument to the scheme, a choice drill, gaps with hints, a table of participles, a meaning quiz and Isaiah's research notes.

Q: What's a good game for practicing adverb + adjective collocations?

Try “Collocation snap” : deal one pile of adverbs ( widely , deeply , hotly ) and one of participles ( used , influenced , debated ). Two students turn a card each, and when the cards make a strong pair, the first to call “Snap!” uses it in a sentence about their generation. For speaking, the boxes in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai ask Ulric says labels divide people. Do you agree? Give two reasons.

Q: What's good homework for adverb + adjective collocations?

Good homework gives both words and asks for the pair : Spanish is a ___ (wide / speak) language in Texas. Add a choice between highly skilled and high skilled , word order and a quiz on correct sentences. All ten homework tasks in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai check themselves, ending with Coral's research summary and Isaiah's answer to Ulric, a reader from Ohio.

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches adverb + adjective collocations through generation labels: why Pew Research Center chose 1996 as the last Millennial birth year, and whether such lines mean anything.

Grammar: Pairs such as widely used, highly connected, deeply influenced and hotly debated: the -ly adverb, its spelling and its place before the adjective or participle.
Topic: How Pew drew the line between Millennials and Gen Z, with words such as cutoff, boomer, digital native and come of age.
Activities: An explainer to read, an office argument and a reader's voice memo to hear, self-checking drills, a survey chat and boxes about generation labels.

What's inside

Chapter 1Warm-up: born in the wrong decade?
- PictureUnlock
- Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock
- Study the words: generations and labelsVocabularyTry it
- Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock
Chapter 2Who drew the line at 1996?
- Look at the photo: three generations and one albumPictureUnlock
- Read Isaiah's explainer on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
- Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
- Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Match the paragraphs and the headingsMatchUnlock
Chapter 3Let's listen: you're in column C, Leona
- Listen to Leona and IsaiahListeningTry it
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Ulric's voice memoListeningUnlock
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
Chapter 4Grammar: widely used, hotly debated
- Study the scheme: widely used, hotly debatedGrammar schemeTry it
- Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: use the words in bracketsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Fill in the table: say it with an adverb + past participleFill in the tableTry it
- Choose the correct answer: what does it mean?QuizUnlock
- Drag the words into the gaps: Isaiah's research notesDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 5Let's talk: labels, yes or no?
- Choose the right replies: Coral's surveyChatTry it
- Sort the sentences into the correct columns: research or stereotype?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Open a box and answer: labels, yes or no?Open the boxUnlock
Chapter 6Homework
- Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
- Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
- Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: new sentencesFill in the gapsUnlock
- Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock
- Choose the correct answer: which sentence is correct?QuizUnlock
- Choose the correct option: Coral's research summaryChoose the optionUnlock
- Drag the words into the gaps: Isaiah answers UlricDrag and dropUnlock

Vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

generation gap
come of age
digital native
boomer
cutoff
stereotype
recession
lump together
arbitrary

Grammar: adverb + adjective collocations

Some adverbs and adjectives keep turning up together, and the pairs make English sound natural: a widely used name, a hotly debated line. A story about who names a generation and where its years end is full of them, so learners learn each adverb with the words it usually goes with, spell it with -ly and put it right before the adjective or past participle.

Widely used, hotly debated: adverb + adjective

Some adverbs and adjectives (or past participles) go together again and again. Learn them as pairs, and you'll sound natural.

Strong pairs: widely used, hotly debated

Widely goes with used, known and spoken; highly with connected, skilled and respected; closely with linked and related; hotly with debated. The second word is often a past participle: Many Millennials were deeply influenced by the recession.

Strong pairs to learn

Adverb	Goes with	Example
widely	used, known, spoken	Gen Z is now a widely used name.
highly	connected, skilled, respected	Gen Z grew up in a highly connected world.
deeply	influenced, divided, moved	Many Millennials were deeply influenced by the recession.
closely	linked, related, connected	The Baby Boom is closely linked to a rise in births.
hotly	debated	Where to draw the line is hotly debated.
fully	aware, booked, prepared	Pew is fully aware that its cutoffs aren't exact.
strongly	opposed, recommended	Ulric is strongly opposed to labels.
heavily	criticized, used	The new parking rule was heavily criticized.
clearly	defined, marked	The Baby Boom is clearly defined: 1946 to 1964.

At The Why Desk

By 2019, Gen Z was a widely used name.
The next generation lived in a highly connected world from the start.
The Baby Boom is closely linked to a surge in births.
Exactly where each line should go is hotly debated.
Leona is strongly opposed to being a column in Isaiah's spreadsheet.
Labels are useful, as long as we're fully aware that they're tools.

From adjective to adverb: -ly, fully, heavily

Most of these adverbs add -ly to the adjective: wide → widely, deep → deeply, strong → strongly. Full adds only -y (fully, not fullly), and heavy changes y to i: heavily criticized.

Adjective	Add	Adverb
wide, high, deep, close, hot, strong, clear, bitter	+ ly	widely, highly, deeply, closely, hotly, strongly, clearly, bitterly
full	+ y	fully (not fullly)
heavy	y → i + ly	heavily

The adverb, right before its word

Before an adjective or a participle, use the adverb form: highly connected, not high connected; hotly debated, not hot debated. Put it first (a widely used name, not a used widely name), and keep the participle after be: is strongly opposed, not strongly oppose.

An adverb, right before the adjective

Before an adjective or a past participle, use the adverb: highly connected (not high connected), deeply influenced (not deep influenced), strongly opposed (not strong opposed), hotly debated (not hot debated). Put it right before the word: a widely used name (not a used widely name). After be, use the past participle: is strongly opposed (not oppose).

Common mistakes

Gen Z grew up in a high connected world.
Gen Z grew up in a highly connected world.
an adverb before an adjective: highly
Many Millennials were deep influenced by the recession.
Many Millennials were deeply influenced by the recession.
deep → deeply
Ulric is strong opposed to labels.
Ulric is strongly opposed to labels.
strong → strongly
The cutoff year is hot debated.
The cutoff year is hotly debated.
hot → hotly

Bitterly divided, and other adverbs that fit

Bitterly goes with painful feelings: a town can be bitterly divided over a question, and a fan bitterly disappointed. The strong pairs aren't the only correct ones: widely debated, heavily influenced and deeply opposed work too.

Bitterly divided

Bitterly goes with feelings that hurt. A family or a town can be bitterly divided over a question: people disagree in an angry, painful way. You can also be bitterly disappointed.

More than one adverb can fit

These pairs are strong, but they aren't the only right ones. You can also say widely debated, heavily influenced or deeply opposed. Learn the strong pairs first: they're the ones you'll hear and read most often.

More lessons on this grammar: Adjectives and adverbs lessons and exercises

Try the adverb + adjective collocations exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

What's in the lesson

20 auto-checked exercises
5 games
1 article
1 grammar scheme
1 set of word cards
2 audio clips
2 pictures
2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

describe trends and debates with strong pairs: Gen Z is now a widely used name. Where to draw the line is hotly debated.
put the -ly adverb, not the adjective, before a participle: deeply influenced, strongly opposed, not deep influenced or strong opposed
spell the adverbs correctly: fully aware, not fullly; heavily criticized, not heavyly
say a verb + adverb as adverb + past participle: People debate the cutoff years hotly. → The cutoff years are hotly debated.
argue whether generation labels help or mislead, and tell research from a stereotype: I'm not strongly opposed to labels.

Lesson 29 opens Generations, unit 8 of English B2.2 · Culture and Society. Lesson 21 taught verb + noun collocations such as raise awareness; this one pairs adverbs with adjectives, building on the -ly comment adverbs of B2.1 lesson 17. Lesson 30, Music students living in a retirement home?, moves on to three-part phrasal verbs. An argument in which every cutoff is hotly debated and every label widely used is a natural place for the pairs.

Students spin a wheel about the generation they belong to, then learn twelve words, from define and oppose to lump together and arbitrary, with pictures and audio. They read Isaiah's explainer on Pew's cutoffs, then hear Leona, a Millennial, argue with Isaiah about whether labels mean anything, and Ulric, 75, from Ohio, say that labels divide people; both are AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking exercises, among them a table that turns debate hotly into hotly debated. In the speaking chapter, students answer Coral's survey in a chat, sort sentences into research or stereotype and open boxes about labels.

All ten homework tasks check themselves: a word match, an anagram, gaps with the lesson's words and a memory game, then new sentences to choose from, collocation gaps with hints such as full / book, word order and a quiz on correct sentences, ending with Coral's research summary and Isaiah's answer to Ulric with words to drag in.

Grammar:: adverb + adjective collocations · widely used, highly connected · deeply influenced, closely linked · hotly debated, fully aware · adjectives and adverbs
Topic:: generations · Pew Research Center · Millennials and Gen Z · the Baby Boom · generation labels and stereotypes · digital natives · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

Collect the pairs from the explainer first: students hunt for every adverb + adjective in Isaiah's text (deeply influenced, highly connected, weakly supported) and list them before they see the scheme.
Have students place their own family on a timeline before the reading: who was born when, and which name fits each person. Then they compare it with Pew's years and ask whether one year really changes anything.
Play the office argument twice: first to decide who defends labels, then to catch each pair (strongly opposed, deeply influenced, hotly debated). Students say which side convinced them more.
Turn the adjective slips into a race: read out high connected, deep influenced and hot debated; the first student to fix each one with the -ly form scores a point.

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The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

32 more lessons for adults at B2 in American English, with the same Why Desk team in Pittsburgh. Each lesson answers one question about how Americans learn, work, travel and remember, from the law behind the 40-hour week to the oral histories of StoryCorps. Learners link ideas in formal writing, report what is said and believed, and pack more into a sentence with participle and relative clauses. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

Unit 1 Learning reimagined
adjective suffixes and negative prefixes, mixed conditionals, provided that and on condition that
Unit 2 Work-life balance
be required to and be entitled to, present and perfect participle clauses, participle clauses after conjunctions
Unit 3 Turning points
reduced relative clauses, preposition + which and whom, which for a whole clause, noun + preposition
Unit 4 News and truth
although, whereas and while, the impersonal passive, despite and however, is said to have
Unit 5 Travel that gives back
so as to, in order to and so that, modifying comparatives, linkers of reason and result, verb + object + preposition + -ing
Unit 6 Sport and society
verb + noun collocations, what phrasal verb particles mean, a for-and-against essay, nouns from phrasal verbs
Unit 7 Buildings and heritage
past participle clauses, quantifier + of which and of whom, report language, turn out and prove
Unit 8 Generations
adverb + adjective collocations, three-part phrasal verbs, negative and echo questions, prepositional phrases
1. Lesson 29 · you're hereWho decides where a generation ends?Adverb + adjective collocations
2. Lesson 30Music students living in a retirement home?Three-part phrasal verbs
3. Lesson 31Conversations kept for historyNegative questions and echo questions
4. Lesson 32A day for grandparentsFixed prepositional phrases

Questions about this lesson

What are adverb + adjective collocations?

They're an adverb and an adjective that often go together: widely used, highly connected, fully aware, hotly debated. The second word is often a past participle, as in used or debated. Writers and speakers reach for these pairs again and again, so learning them as chunks makes English sound natural. The B2 lesson Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai teaches ten of them through generation labels.

How do you form adverb + adjective collocations?

Make the adverb from an adjective, usually with -ly (wide → widely, full → fully, heavy → heavily), and put it right before the adjective or participle: a widely used name, not a used widely name. After be, keep the participle: Ulric is strongly opposed to labels, not strongly oppose. The scheme in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai lists nine adverbs with the words they go with.

What are some examples of adverb + adjective collocations?

Five from Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai: Gen Z is now a widely used name. Gen Z grew up in a highly connected world. The Baby Boom is closely linked to a rise in births. Pew is fully aware that its cutoffs aren't exact. The new parking rule was heavily criticized. In each pair, the -ly adverb comes first.

Is it “highly connected” or “high connected”?

It's highly connected: use the -ly adverb, not the adjective, before an adjective or a past participle. The same goes for deeply influenced (not deep influenced), strongly opposed (not strong opposed) and hotly debated (not hot debated). These four slips are the common mistakes in Who decides where a generation ends?, a B2 lesson on edio.ai, and its chat uses them as wrong replies.

What's the difference between “hotly debated” and “widely debated”?

Both are correct, with a small change in meaning. Hotly debated means people argue about it with strong feelings; widely debated means many people in many places discuss it. In the same way, heavily influenced and deeply influenced are both fine. Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai teaches the strongest pairs first, and its drills never mark a second correct adverb wrong: they test forms such as hot against hotly.

What are the generation years, and who decides them?

According to Pew, only the Baby Boom has an official name, from the U.S. Census Bureau: 1946 to 1964. Pew Research Center uses 1965 to 1980 for Generation X and 1981 to 1996 for Millennials; anyone born from 1997 on is Gen Z. In January 2019, Pew explained that it had picked 1996 a year earlier, calling its cutoffs not an exact science, but not arbitrary. Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai tells the story.

Where does the term “digital native” come from?

It began as a teaching idea: a 2001 journal article about how schools should teach students raised with computers made the term popular. It's now widely used, but a 2008 review found the idea of a special “digital native” generation weakly supported by evidence. It's one of the surprising facts in Isaiah's explainer in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai, along with the names Pew almost gave Gen Z: the iGeneration and Homelanders.

How do I teach adverb + adjective collocations to B2 students?

Treat each pair as one chunk of vocabulary: students find pairs in a text, sort them by adverb and notice that the adverb ends in -ly and comes first. Then drill the spelling and the slips, such as high connected. Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai moves from Isaiah's explainer and an office argument to the scheme, a choice drill, gaps with hints, a table of participles, a meaning quiz and Isaiah's research notes.

What's a good game for practicing adverb + adjective collocations?

Try “Collocation snap”: deal one pile of adverbs (widely, deeply, hotly) and one of participles (used, influenced, debated). Two students turn a card each, and when the cards make a strong pair, the first to call “Snap!” uses it in a sentence about their generation. For speaking, the boxes in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai ask Ulric says labels divide people. Do you agree? Give two reasons.

What's good homework for adverb + adjective collocations?

Good homework gives both words and asks for the pair: Spanish is a ___ (wide / speak) language in Texas. Add a choice between highly skilled and high skilled, word order and a quiz on correct sentences. All ten homework tasks in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai check themselves, ending with Coral's research summary and Isaiah's answer to Ulric, a reader from Ohio.

How do you practice adverb + adjective collocations one-to-one?

Talk about debates in the student's own world: a rule at work, a new app, a local plan. The student describes each with a strong pair (a hotly debated rule, a widely used app), and the teacher asks for one more. The chat in Who decides where a generation ends? on edio.ai works without a partner: Coral runs a survey about generations, and the student answers with pairs like a highly connected world.

Are there interactive exercises for adverb + adjective collocations?

Yes. This page plays three parts of Who decides where a generation ends?, a B2 lesson on edio.ai, without an account: Leona and Isaiah's argument about labels; a table that turns verbs into adverb + participle pairs; and Coral's survey chat. Everything else needs an account.

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About this lesson

What's inside

Vocabulary

Grammar: adverb + adjective collocations

Strong pairs: widely used, hotly debated

Strong pairs to learn

At The Why Desk

From adjective to adverb: -ly, fully, heavily

The adverb, right before its word

Common mistakes

Bitterly divided, and other adverbs that fit

Try the adverb + adjective collocations exercises

What's in the lesson

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

Teaching tips

Teach the whole lesson in edio

Start a free trial

Open the lesson

Teach it live or as homework

The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

Unit 1 Learning reimagined

Unit 2 Work-life balance

Unit 3 Turning points

Unit 4 News and truth

Unit 5 Travel that gives back

Unit 6 Sport and society

Unit 7 Buildings and heritage

Unit 8 Generations

Questions about this lesson

Teach this lesson with your students