Do you feel bad or badly?
Should you want something bad or badly?
Whether to use bad or badly can be determined by identifying the type of verb in the sentence and understanding how bad and badly differ as parts of speech.
Bad is an adjective, so it describes a noun or pronoun. Badly is an adverb so, like all adverbs, it describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb.
Most verbs perform action, but linking verbs are different: they are not performing an action, but are connecting the subject with another word in the sentence. The word feel, when it refers to emotions, serves as a linking verb that connects the subject (always a noun or pronoun) of the sentence with the adjective that follows the verb. When using the verb feel in referring to an emotion or state of mind, always follow it with the adjective bad. In other cases when an action verb is used (like the verb want), use the adverb badly:
He feels bad that he forgot his mother’s birthday.
He wants a new car badly.
When my children were in elementary school, I taught them the difference between “linking” and “action” verbs. They also learned which type of modifier to use with each verb type.
Like “your, you’re; there, they’re, their”, and so may other things, I have discovered most of my kids’ government school counterparts missed these lessons.
My grandmother made it through high school and a bit of college. This was no mean feat for the daughter of a farmer in the early 1900s. The information she was required to know to graduate high school would astound many college grads today.
If we as a society continue to “educate” our children the way we currently do, websites like this one will be purposeless in thirty years. How sad!
I taught my children in the elementary school years. They learned the difference between “linking” verbs and “action” verbs. They not only learned what type of modifier to use in each situation, but memorized a list of “linking” verbs when they in the third grade.
I find, like so many other things, their government school counterparts missed this.
My apologies! I may not be adept at using the internet, but I console myself with basic English grammar knowledge! 🙂
What about: The snakes can feel your steps very well (or good)? Someone`s steps as vibrations not a snake`s state of health.
The snakes can feel your steps very well. Feel is a verb that requires the adverb well.
See my post on the difference between good and well.
“…When using the verb feel in referring to an emotion or state of mind, always follow it with the adjective bad. In other cases when an action verb is used (like the verb want), use the adverb badly:…” – U`re the only who discribed the theme exactly…
Thxs a lot!
In short – I feel well that u feel good.