Here’s a grammar lesson to help you avoid a common error, as regards use of adverbs — aka, -ly words, such as sweetly and dangerously. I suggest that you read all of this; it might surprise you.
Knowing the term is optional if you can say it “correct“
Maybe you’re in the “top half” (my rough estimate) of the population, so you already understand adverbs, with or without understanding that grammatical term, itself. That is, you would not likely say, “He drives dangerous,” because you intuitively know (though not necessarily keen on adverbs) that you should say “He drives dangerously.”
You’ve heard it enough, and you paid attention and learned to say it right (say it rightly?). Good for you — not just for paying attention and learning, but for hanging out with people who speak correct!
Just kidding!
I hope you recognized that last remark as a joke. Of course, I know it’s “correctly” there (and in the heading above). We must keep our sense of humor, if we’re going to discuss grammatical matters, else we’ll bore everybody, including ourselves.
If you did not get the joke, I hate to say it, but you are not currently in the top half, after all. Don’t worry, soon you’ll be up there with the best of them. That is, if you truly strive to learn my “Activated writing method” available under “Writing Lessons,” you will quite soon know for yourself that you’ve made a quantum leap toward the top of the pile.
Or maybe you belong in the top quarter (again, my rough estimate — and it would depend on which “population” we’re talking about, anyway) who does have a decent grasp of adverbs, including by name. Maybe you even know the adverb as a “part of speech” (okay, now we’re up to the top eighth!).
Wherever you stood before, you will, as of the next minute or two, be able to say that you presently understand the basic rule of adverbs.
“Modifying” a verb, whether it’s doing, being, or having something
To “modify” (add info about) a verb, use the -ly form (yes, that’s called an adverb), as in, “My mom sang beautifully,” “the shirt hangs loosely,” and “She talks about tax law informedly.”
Your “colorful” word is not modifying a thing (i.e., a noun), like “tax law.” It’s modifying some kind of verb — telling how something was, is, or will be happening, in some sense. Maybe it’s not “happening” per se, instead “being” or “having” something. Those are all verbs, which is the point. When modifying any verb, you should (almost always!) use an -ly adverb.
In contrast, when you are “modifying” a noun, skip the -ly and just use the adjective, as in “My mom sang beautiful songs,” that’s quite a loose shirt,” and “I will follow her well informed tax law advice.”
So “-ly adverbs modify verbs, and adjectives modify nouns. Lots of people know this, and now you’re definitely in that group. But that’s not the “common error” I want you to avoid.
Given the nature of this site and the “population” that would visit and learn here, I’d say there’s actually a great chance that you already knew that rule — by name, even. Maybe you even knew that we use the term “parts of speech” when classifying word types, such as adverbs and adjectives.
The exception to the rule
But here’s where you might very possibly commit a grammatical error — from, we might say, knowing the rule too well — or, at least, following it too closely.
Consider the question in this post’s title: Do adverbs make you feel bad — or badly?
I’ll bet many readers — maybe you — take care to show (off) your understanding of grammar, including adverbs, so you, naturally, would avoid saying “He feels bad,” since you are modifying the verb, “feel.” Since you’re adverb-savvy, you would stick an ly onto your adjective, bad, to say, “He feels badly.” Many people “know” to do this — but they’re wrong!
When to skip the -ly, adverb, even if following a verb
The special lesson: Above, I have provided the basic rule of adverb usage, which you may well have understood already. Well, some review never hurts. But that doesn’t address the special case shown in the title of this blog post: “makes you feel bad.”
You need not (and should not) use the “-ly” adverb “badly,” above, even though many misinformed “grammar snobs” (aka grammar nazis) might (wrongly) “correct” you, if you don’t use the adverbial form.
Notice that the phrase “don’t feel bad” does not referring to your ability to feel (a verb), which could, indeed, be “bad,” if, say, you became numb. When numb, you do “feel badly.” You can’t feel anything! You’re too numb. A numb person, indeed, “feels” badly (or even “poorly”). Get it?
But when we describe someone who is experiencing negative feelings, we’re not just describing the person’s capacity to feel. What we are really modifying is the person’s feelings, themselves. Yes, “feeling” counts as a verb, but one’s “feelings” constitute a thing, that is, a noun.
When we say “he feels bad, we are not talking about his sensory ability to feel. We mean he is beset by “bad feelings.” And those bad feelings count as a noun. So we simply use the adjective, bad.
In my view, knowing this exception — and others like it, such as “she smells bad” (which is not to say she suffers from asnomia (problems smelling things) — will not change a lot in your life. What will change a lot in your life is studying exceptions to the rules. Knowing a rule but not its exceptions can get you in trouble!
Such efforts to better understand grammatical concepts and rules that you thought you already knew, will lead to deeper understanding of grammar, in general. And that deeper understanding can not only make you feel better, personally, it can even make you smell better, at least to some people, like me! 🙂