Is the word good an adjective or adverb

Video Transcript
Section 1
Well hey there I’m Emma from mmmEnglish! These little but very common words can cause English learners quite a few headaches. They’re very similar in meaning but they’re not used in the same way. It’s easy to confuse them! So this lesson is going to be short and sweet but we are going to get to the bottom of this.

Confusing the words ‘good’ and ‘well’ is a really common English error. Now there are some clear rules that can help you to use them correctly but there are also some exceptions to the rules which probably leave you feeling a little bit confused. The most helpful thing to keep in mind is that ‘good’ is an adjective and ‘well’ is an adverb. They’re two different parts of speech. A quick reminder. Adjectives can modify nouns or tell us more information about a noun. So ‘good’ modifies a noun.

Something can be good.

A good kid.
A good afternoon.
A good night’s sleep.

All of these things.

Now as an adverb, ‘well’ modifies a verb. An action can be done well, right?

She swims well for her age.
We have eaten well.

In both these examples, ‘well’ is modifying the verb. Now, nine times out of ten, most of the time, the question you need to ask yourself is: Am I modifying a noun or an action?

And this will help you to make the correct choice  between ‘good’ and ‘well’. Sweet!

But now I have to mention a significant exception to this rule that ‘good’ is the adjective and ‘well’ is the adverb because when you’re talking about health, the quality of someone’s health, ‘well’ can be used as an adjective too.

So if someone is well, it means they’re healthy.

My brother is safe and well.
Is your mother well enough to travel?

All good? ‘Well’ can be an adjective when you’re talking about health.

Okay are you ready for another exception? We can actually use ‘good’ with some non-action verbs like:

(to) be
(to) look
(to) seem
(to) feel

These are stative verbs. So we do that when we’re connecting a subject to an adjective. We can say:

Don’t worry, everything’s good.
This book is good.
the children are good.
I feel good today!
The new office seems good!
The hotel you’re staying in looks so good!

Right? So here we can use ‘good’ with a non-action verb. The last little exception or rule to remember is that ‘good’ can be used with the verb ‘do’ when ‘good’ is a noun, when you’re talking about morally correct behaviour.

Some people volunteer to do good within their local community.

They help others. This is to do good.

Now word order is really important to get these words right in your sentence because they’re different types of words, they are treated differently in our sentence. It’s a really common mistake to say: Sarah plays well football.

The adverb doesn’t usually go between the verb and the object. It goes after the object. Right? It’s something to keep in mind.

Sarah plays football well.

All right, you know that I like to make my lessons practical for you so that you can practise what you’ve learned during the lesson. So are you ready to try it out? First sentence.

You speak English good.

Is it correct?

Correct: You speak English well.

Because we are modifying the verb ‘speak’ here in this sentence.

What about: Your English is well.

Is that right? This word is an adjective. We know because we can see the subject followed by the verb ‘be’ so I guess we could use ‘well’ as an adjective, right? But English is a thing not a person so it doesn’t make sense to say that English is in good health. We need to use ‘good’ here.

Your English is good.

Let’s try another. I want you to fill in the gaps.

I want you to fill in the gaps.

I’m having a _______ day.

Can you guess the correct word here? The adjective or the adverb? Good! We are modifying the noun ‘day’.

I’m having a good day.

But I want you to write a similar sentence with the adverb ‘well’, right? Write it in the comments now. You might need to change the verb in that sentence to help you.

My day is going well.

Now the adverb is modifying the verb, right? Good job!

Did he do _______ on his exam?

Did he do well on his exam?

We’re modifying the verb ‘do’ here.

This rain is ______ for the garden.
This rain is good for the garden.

Her job isn’t _________ for her health.
Her job isn’t good for her health. 

Careful! The word that goes in this space is ‘good’. Just because we’re talking about health in the sentence, doesn’t mean we need to use ‘well’.

You spoke ______ at the conference.

‘good’ or ‘well’?

You spoke well at the conference.

I saw Jeremy last night. He looked __________.

Well here we could actually use the adjective ‘good’ or the adjective ‘well’. Both are possible but the meaning is different, right? Think about the difference in the meaning. ‘Well’ means that he looked healthy. ‘Good’ means that he was pleasant to look at – handsome!

I saw Jeremy last night. He looked good/well.

What about if I said: How are you?

How would you answer that question? Would you say: I am good or I am well?

It depends! Again, you could say either. You could use either adjective but the meaning is slightly different.

I want to finish up today’s lesson with a fixed expression that seems to challenge these rules a little.

This one: (to) get (someone) good which means to trick someone or to fool them so anyone who tricked their friend on April Fool’s Day can say: I really got him good which means you tricked him.

I also want to mention before we finish, that in informal spoken English, you’ll hear native English speakers bending the rules a little. You’ll hear them use ‘good’ as an adverb.

How’s Tony?
He’s going good!

Now this is not actually grammatically correct but it’s reasonably common and I really recommend that for you guys, you stick to the rules. Play by the rules, especially if you are studying English to sit an exam. So in that sense, this is incorrect but you’ll hear it all the time.

So that’s it for today’s lesson, I told you it was going to be short and sweet. And I hope it was helpful as well. There are lots of pairs of words like this in English, words that have similar meanings but they’re used differently in sentences. Can you think of any others? If you want me to make a lesson about any more of these pairs of words, then make sure you tell me about it in the comments. Tell me what pairs of words you want me to make a lesson about.

Please do subscribe to the channel so that I can keep you up-to-date with all of my new lessons. And if you’ve got any special requests for future lessons then make sure you let me know in the comments below. And once you do that then come and find me in one of these two lessons here. I’ll see you in there!

mmmEnglish Video Lessons are a series of video lessons created to build confidence in English learners and focus on English in daily life. Download them and watch them anywhere! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be the first to get my new videos, and come and say hi on my Facebook page!!

• #1

A: How are you?
B: I am well / I am good.

I am being taught in school that we can use an «adverb» after a «to be verb» only in the case of «asking about the health of someone and in the answer to the question: how are you». And for all other cases, we just have to use an adjective after a to be verb. like This is beautiful./ This is not good to say this. / It is worthwhile.

But I have heard in the movies that they say «I am good» and use an adjective after the to be in this case.
Now why is that? Am I wrongly being taught?

• #2

well and good are adjectives.

A: How are you
B: I am happy

happily

adjective

adverb

• #3

well is an adjective? but we are taught that good/better/ best are the adjectives and well is the adverb of good. So is it all wrong?

• #4

No, well is both an adjective and an adverb

I am well — adjective
He did it well — adverb

• #5

«Well» is an adverb. («This is one well-tempered clavier!»)

The «proper» answer to «How are you?» is «I’m well / I’m doing quite well / I’m doing poorly / I’m feeling well» (using adverbs). But today «I’m doing good / I’m not doing so good / I’m not great / I’m great» (using adjectives) are very common and becoming accepted. In very, very polite company — tea with the queen — you could only use adverbs to answer that question, but in most situations it won’t matter if you use adjectives or adverbs.

• #6

The trouble is that some of these small words can be used as adverbs and adjectives albeit that the meaning and / or verb may be different.

«How are you doing?»
«I’m doing pretty good / well, thanks.»

Here they are adverbs.

• #7

No. «Good» is an adjective, even in the sentence «I’m doing pretty good.» It’s technically wrong, from a grammatical standpoint, which is why «I’m doing well» is preferred in polite contexts, but it’s widely-used enough that it is commonly accepted.

• #8

Dictionary.com

well: adverb
1. in a good or satisfactory manner: Business is going well. 2. thoroughly, carefully, or soundly: to shake well before using; listen well. 3. in a moral or proper manner: to behave well. 4. commendably, meritoriously, or excellently: a difficult task well done. 5. with propriety, justice, or reason: I could not well refuse. [ETC.]
adjective
11. in good health; sound in body and mind: Are you well? He is not a well man. 12. satisfactory, pleasing, or good: All is well with us. 13. proper, fitting, or gratifying: It is well that you didn’t go. 14. in a satisfactory position; well-off: I am very well as I am.

• #9

Ok, sure, why not, «well» can be an adjective, particularly in the sense of «healthy.» I think I was just trying to say that for feeling well or feeling poorly, adverbs used to be favored, but now adjectives are considered completely OK by most people.

• #10

Ok, sure, why not, «well» can be an adjective, particularly in the sense of «healthy.» I think I was just trying to say that for feeling well or feeling poorly, adverbs used to be favored, but now adjectives are considered completely OK by most people.

But if we want to write a formal writing or while talking to a principal, we should use the adverbs. «I am well». Right?

• #11

Right. That’s the «tea with the queen» test: if you want to sound like you’re ready to have tea with the queen, speak as formally as possible.

More often than not, English students confuse adjectives and adverbs. Although, a little practice can go a long way when it comes to grammar.

Adjectives

Adjectives are one of four main word classes, along with adverbs, nouns and verbs. They describe a noun or a pronoun.

For example:

• Sam’s got a fast car.
• This is a beautiful garden.
• They live in a polluted area.

Although adjectives usually stand before the word they modify (describe), they may as well stand after it, especially after be, seem, look, feel, etc.

For example:

• That boy is intelligent.
• You look tired.
• I feel happy.

Comparison of adjectives

We normally use adjectives to compare things by adding the suffix ‘-er‘ or ‘-est‘ to one-syllable adjectives and by putting ‘more’ or ‘most’ before the adjectives with more than one syllable.

For example:

• This house is bigger than that one.
• My elder son is more responsible than my younger one.

We can compare adjectives with ‘as … as’, ‘not as … as’, etc. Find more about the comparison of adjectives here.

Order of adjectives

We sometimes put more than one adjective before a noun. Their order is as follows:

• Number or quantity (one, two…, a few, many…)
• Opinion or quality (nice, ugly, beautiful)
• Size (large, small, short)
• Shape (round, square)
• Age (two-year-old, young)
• Colour (yellow, brownish)
• Origin (Italian, Medieval)
• Material (wooden, glass)
• Purpose (cooking, driving)

For example:

• Two beautiful, tall, fifteen-year-old, Australian twin sisters.
• A beautiful, small, wooden table.

Find more about the order of adjectives in English here.

Adverbs

We normally use adverbs to modify a verb, adjective, another adverb or even an entire sentence. Most of them are built by adding ‘-ly to the adjective.

For example:

• The opera singer is a beautiful lady.
• She also sings beautifully.

Comparison of adverbs

Adverbs can also be compared by putting ‘more’ and ‘most’ before them.

For example:

• He tried to walk more quietly as the baby was sleeping.
• Paul won the race because he ran most quickly.

Irregular forms

A few adverbs have the same form as the corresponding adjectives: e.g. fast, late, near, hard, high, early, etc.

• It’s a fast car. (adjective)
• He was fast asleep. (adverb)

• He’s a man in his late 50s. (adjective)
• Mary stayed up late (adverb)

• There is the nearest petrol station. (adjective)
• We live near the park. (adverb)

• It’s hard work. (adjective)
• They work hard. (adverb)

• That bird flies higher than the plane. (adjective)
• I hate when he hits the ball so high. (adverb)

• An early bird catches the worm. (adjective)
• It’s nice to wake up early in the country. (adverb)

The forms lately, nearly, hardly, deeply, highly also exist, but have a narrower meaning than their corresponding adjectives:

lately = recently

• Have you seen Tom lately?

deeply = profoundly

• Samantha loved her son deeply.

nearly = almost

• Don’t be impatient. We’ve nearly finished the exercise.

hardly = scarcely, almost not, with difficulty

• There are hardly any tourists this year because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Good and Well

The main difference between good and well is – good is an adjective and well is an adverb.

• Sarah paints well.
• Jim is a good painter.

Things become confusing after linking verbs; we use good after linking verbs such as be, taste, sound, smell, look, seem and feel if we want to describe the subject, not the action of the verb:

• The film wasn’t good at all.
• This dish smells good to me.
• I feel good today.

We use well after the linking verbs: be, feel, look and seem if we want to use the adjective form of well meaning ’healthy’:

• Jim feels well enough to leave the hospital.
• Fiona was well yesterday, but she feels sick today.

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What is a regular adverb?

Adverbs generally correspond to an adjective, so that when we want to apply the adjective’s meaning to a verb (or to an adjective or another adverb), we have a straightforward way to do so. Regular adverbs are formed by adding “-ly” or some variation thereof onto the end of the adjective. Sometimes the adjective’s spelling needs to be altered slightly to accommodate this, but the rules of doing so are fairly straightforward.

What is an irregular adverb?

Irregular adverbs, on the other hand, are adverbs that are not formed from standard English spelling conventions. Because they do not follow the “rules,” there is no trick to using them: you simply have to memorize them. Here is a table of the most common irregular adverbs and their adjectival counterparts:

Adjective	Irregular Adverb	Sources of Confusion
fast	fast
hard	hard	Hardly (ever) is an adverb of frequency, meaning “almost never.”
straight	straight
lively	lively	Lively still exists as an adverb in phrases like “step lively.” However, it is more often used in the adverbial prepositional phrase “in a lively manner.”
late	late	Lately is a different adverb that means “recently.”
daily	daily
early	early
friendly	no adverb	Can be used in the adverbial prepositional phrase “in a friendly manner.”
timely	no adverb	Can be used in the adverbial prepositional phrase “in a timely manner.”
good	well	Well is the adverb form of good; it can also function as a predicative adjective.

First, let’s examine the normal rules for making regular adverbs, and then we’ll examine more closely the irregular adverbs above that do not follow these rules.

Regular adverbs

Regular adverbs are formed by taking an adjective and adding some form of the suffix “-ly.” Sometimes the spelling of the adjective changes to accommodate this suffix; sometimes the suffix itself must change. As with most spelling rules in English, though, there are exceptions even to these patterns. We’ll look at these rules individually below, and highlight any exceptions to each.

Adjective + “-ly”

The most straightforward rule is to simply add “-ly” to the end of an adjective, without changing the spelling at all. This occurs when an adjective ends in a consonant (except for “-ic”) or a consonant + “-e” (except for “-le”). For example:

• “She is a beautiful singer.”
• “She sings beautifully.”

• “He is a slow walker.”
• “He walks slowly.”

• “This is the last item we need to discuss.”
• “Lastly, let’s discuss the impact on the environment.”

Adjectives ending in “-ic”

Sometimes the spelling of a word will have to change slightly so as to better accommodate the extra “-ly.” If the adjective ends in “-ic,” for instance, it will become “-ically”:

• “They are enthusiastic students.”
• “They work enthusiastically.”

• “There are some drastic differences between these.”
• “These are drastically different.”

The one exception to this rule is the adjective public, which becomes the adverb publicly.

Adjectives ending in “-y”

If the adjective ends in a “-y,” it is replaced with “-ily”:

• “The children are happy when they are playing.”
• “The children are playing happily.”

• “Why are you so noisy when you eat?”
• “Quit eating so noisily!”

Adjectives ending in “-le” and “-ue”

For adjectives ending in “-le,” we drop the “e” on the end and replace it with “-y”:

• “He is a terrible golfer.”
• “He plays golf terribly.”

For those ending in “-ue,” the “e” is still dropped but it is replaced instead with “-ly”:

• “You will get what is due so long as you are true to your word.»
• “It is duly noted that the defendant is truly remorseful.”

Irregular Adverbs

The majority of adverbs end in “-ly,” but as we will see, there are some irregular ones that need to be memorized.

Spelling doesn’t change

Fast is one of the irregular adverbs—the adjective and the adverb are the same. For example:

“A Ferrari is a fast car.

“He drives fast.”

Hard is another irregular adverb. If we say, “I work hardly,” it could impede understanding. The listener may think you mean, “I hardly work,” which has the opposite meaning (hardly (ever) is a frequency adverb and means “very rarely”). The correct use of hard as an adverb would simply be “I work hard.”

Other exceptions to the spelling rules include straight, lively, late, and early, which all have the same spelling whether they are used as adjectives or as adverbs. For example:

• “Draw a straight line.”
• “We drove straight.”

• “It was a lively game.”
• “Step lively,* everyone!”

• “I think I need to have an early night.”
• “I’m going to bed early tonight.”

(*Though lively still exists as an adverb in phrases like “step lively,” it is more often used in an adverbial prepositional phrase, as in, “The boys all played in a lively manner.”)

Late vs. Lately

A common source of confusion is the proper use of the words “late” and “lately.” Late, as already mentioned, is both an adjective and an adverb. Lately, on the other hand, is only an adverb of time meaning “recently.” For example:

• “Why are you always late?” (adjective)
• “We arrived late.” (adverb)
• “I’ve been feeling unwell lately.” (adverb of time)
• “I hope the guests don’t arrive lately.” (Incorrect)

Only adjectives

Timely and friendly are only adjectives. To use these as adverbs, we simply use them in an adverbial prepositional phrase, such as “in a ______ way/manner”:

• “Please arrive in a timely manner.”
• “He spoke to me in a friendly way.”

Adverbs of frequency

Adverbs of frequency that deal with specific measures of time and end in “-ly” can function both as adjectives and adverbs. Examples of these include yearly, weekly, daily, and hourly. For instance:

• “It’s good to have a daily routine.” (adjective)
• “I make sure to exercise daily.” (adverb)

• “I want weekly updates, Jenkins!” (adjective)
• “I update the boss weekly.” (adverb)

Wrong vs. Wrongly

The adjective wrong can become the adverb wrongly, but we can use wrong as an irregular adverb as well—both are acceptable. However, wrong as an adverb must come after the verb it modifies, as in:

• “I guessed wrong.”
• “He filled out the form wrong.”

Wrongly, on the other hand, can be used either before or after the word it modifies:

• “He was wrongly accused.”
• “They judged the case wrongly.”

Good vs. Well

Good is an adjective used to describe a noun; well is the adverb derived from good and describes how you do something. For example:

• “I speak English well.” (correct)
• “I speak English good.” (incorrect)

• “I did well on the English exam.” (correct)
• “I did good on the English exam.” (incorrect)

“I speak English good” is incorrect, as we need to use an adverb when describing a verb. In the last example, “I did good” is incorrect because we need an adverb to describe how the speaker did on the exam. The phrase “do good” is especially tricky, because it can also mean “to do good or virtuous deeds.” (Good in this sense is a noun acting as the object of the verb.)

Adjectives after linking verbs

It is important to remember that linking verbs (such as be, become, get, and the sense verbs feel, taste, look, sound, smell, and seem) are followed by predicative adjectives, not adverbs. For example:

• “You seem happy.”
• “She sounds English.” (An opinion based on her voice.)
• “We became tired.”
• “You look good.”
• “You look well.”

Notice that the last two examples are both correct. Not only is well an adverb, but it also functions as an adjective. Its opposite adjective is ill, while the opposite of good is bad. When we say, “You look good,” we are referring to the person’s physical appearance. If, on the other hand, we say, “You look well,” we are referring to the health or well-being of the person. To learn more about adjectives that follow linking verbs, as well as the “good/well” distinction, see the chapter on Predicative Adjectives.

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Adjectives vs Adverbs Examples

• 1) Adverbs and Adjectives are both modifiers, so it is easy to confuse them with each other. And even more confusingly, some words sometimes act as adjectives, and sometimes act as adverbs.

  Hint: Ask yourself which word is being described:

  adjectives always modify nouns or pronouns, but adverbs never do.

  Sarah was a little sleepy. (adverb modifying adjective sleepy)
  Sarah took a little nap. (adjective modifying noun nap)

• 2) Use the comparative degree of an adjective or an adverb when speaking of two things and the superlative degree when speaking of three or more:

  This is the larger of the two rooms.
  This white one is the smallest of the three puppies.

Good vs well

Good is an adjective. The adverb is well.

Ex: My father is a good driver -> He drives well.
Your English is good -> You speak English well.

I feel good. (psychologically / morally)
I feel well. (healthy / well being)

You must stay in bed until you feel well / better / good.
I hope you get well / better / good soon.

See Good vs Well Exercise

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Fast / Hard / Late

These words are both adjectives and adverbs:

ADJECTIVES	ADVERBS
Jack is a very fast runner.	He runs very fast. (fastly)
Ann is a hard worker.	She works very hard. (hardly)
The train was late.	The train arrived late. (lately)

Lately = recently
Have you seen Tom lately?

Hardly = very little, almost not
Sarah was rather unfriendly to me at the party. She hardly spoke to me.(she spoke to me very little, almost not at all)

George and Hilda want to get married but they’ve only known each other for a few days. I don’t think they should get married yet. They hardly know each other. (they know each other very little)

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We cannot form adverbs from adjectives ending in ly.

Common adjectives: friendly, lively, ugly, lonely. We add the pattern in a … way/manner or fashion to make them adverb.

Friendly: In a friendly way/manner/fashion He behaves in a friendly way.

Lively : In a lively way / manner / fashion

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