<p>‘Gift’ used as a verb.</p>
<p>Hmmm. I guess I treated “feel” as an action verb, which should have “badly” as its modifying adverb. But since feeling is not action, I suppose I should have said something like this:</p>
<p>It went bad today.</p>
<p>How’s that?</p>
<p>And someone help me with this one:</p>
<p>There’s a woman in my office. Whenever I ask her conversationally “How are you?” she replies “I am well.” I usually reply “I’m good.” I started thinking about it and I think she’s correct – she’s responding to a general inquiry about her well-being (she’s well), while I’m remarking on my behavior (I’m good). Yes??</p>
<p>I think you are, VH. Though, I hafta say, I really enjoy “I’m good”.</p>
<p>The way I look at it, is “bad” an adverb or a noun? When you say, “I feel bad”, “bad” is a noun - it doesn’t modify “feel”, but is the name of the emotion that you are feeling at the time. Replace “bad” with any other emotion: “I feel sadly”? “I feel happily today”? </p>
<p>On the other hand, when you say, “It went badly”, “bad” is an adverb - it modifies how the situation went.</p>
<p>Does that make sense?</p>
<p>Written tic in my students’ papers that makes me nuts:</p>
<p>they introduce every thought they have with “I feel as though”.</p>
<p>I feel as though, if they have something to state, just state it!</p>
<p>“We’re pregnant”</p>
<p>In “I feel bad” bad is an adjective used after the linking verb “feel.” That is the correct use.</p>
<p>“We are applying to Yale”</p>
<p>Yeah, Chedva. It makes perfect sense, and I think you are correct and I am wrong. Feel, while a verb, is not really action, I don’t think. Rather, it is a state of being. Hmmm. So then bad in this case is what one appears to be?</p>
<p>Somehow, I can’t get over the idea that feel is something that one is doing, and that “bad” modifies this thing one is doing. We need a grammar policeperson here.</p>
<p>Help?</p>
<p>Ah yes. Thanks, c45.</p>
<p>Another tic I find irritating is that there is a tendency that people tend to have that causes them to use the word “that” unecessarily.</p>
<p>“We believe that all men are created equal” instead of “We believe all men are created equal”.</p>
<p>Drosselmeier - I’ll be the grammar Nazi. “I believe all men” has “men” as the object of the verb “believe.” “I believe that all men are created” has the phase “that all men…” as the object. In that case, the “that” is needed.</p>
<p>“Breaking” news</p>
<p>You have to check your nerves at the door when you enter a public forum.</p>
<p>
No. no. no. It’s an adjective. Happiness is the noun, happy is the adjective. He’s a bad apple. Think about it this way “How does it feel?” “It feels heavy.” Heavy is an adjective.</p>
<p>When I hear “I feel badly” what I envision is the person rooting around for something with his hands and fingers and not doing it well. That’s feeling badly.</p>
<p>Hmmm. Well, it seems I’m batting something like 2 for 4, c45-- though I still dislike “that” in the abovementioned case.</p>
<p>Yes, it feels heavy. That deals with one’s sense of touch. 2311clk, that’s exactly how I read “I feel badly”. If one is upset about a situation, one feels bad. One does not feel badly about something.</p>
<p>“In other words”…if you have to say it differently to explain the first statement, why not skip the first statement and go straight to the most clear version? I have a co-worker who says “in other words” many times a day.</p>
<p>Hopefully, we can orientate enough people to this issue. Leastwise, it might not bother you and I so much if they can just get their pronounceiation right.</p>