Is the word well an adjective or an 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!!

Good is an adjective while well is an adverb answering the question how. Sometimes well also functions as an adjective pertaining to health.

Examples:
You did a good job.
Good describes job, which is a noun, so good is an adjective.

You did the job well.
Well is an adverb describing how the job was performed.

I feel well.
Well is an adjective describing I.

Good vs. Well Rules

Rule: With the four senses—look, smell, taste, feel—discern if these words are being used actively to decide whether to follow them with good or well. (Hear is always used actively.)

Examples:
You smell good today.
Good describes you, not how you sniff with your nose.

You smell well for someone with a cold.
You are sniffing actively with your nose here so use the adverb.

She looks good for a 75-year-old grandmother.
She is not looking actively with eyes so use the adjective.

Rule: When referring to health, always use well.

Examples:
I do not feel well today.
You do not look well.

Rule: When describing someone’s emotional state, use good.

Example: He doesn’t feel good about having cheated.

So, how should you answer the question, “How are you?” If you think someone is asking about your physical well-being, answer, “I feel well,” or “I don’t feel well.” If someone is asking about your emotional state, answer, “I feel good,” or “I don’t feel good.”

Please see our post How Are You—Good, Well, or Fine?, which provides more discussion and helpful examples.

Pop Quiz
1. She jogged very good/well for her age.
2. She had a good/well time yesterday.
3. With a high fever, it is unlikely he will feel good/well enough to play basketball tomorrow.
4. Those glasses look good/well on you.

Pop Quiz Answers

1. She jogged very well for her age.
2. She had a good time yesterday.
3. With a high fever, it is unlikely he will feel well enough to play basketball tomorrow.
4. Those glasses look good on you.

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If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the «Comment» box at the bottom of this page.

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• #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.

For those interested in a little info about this site: it’s a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for — just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn’t be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary — which is now in the public domain. However, after a day’s work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary — which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it’s not properly structured for parsing. That’s when I stumbled across the UBY project — an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I’m happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).