Here’s a grammar lesson to help you to better understand adverbs so that you can use them confidently and correctly. You can see how I put into bold italics the -ly at the end of those two adverbs in the prior sentence. Well, that just gets us started. To learn more about adverbs, including how to avoid a common adverb error, read on carefully.
Yes, you can think of adverbs as -ly words. I might use that very definition if needing to explain them in just a minute or less. But even with that limitation, I would certainly add to that identifying suffix the adverb’s actual function – they modify verbs — as you may know.
Many people can recite that basic functional definition: “an adverb modifies a verb.” You will get that standard answer quickly if you search online. But to actually use them with confidence and skill – plunking great ones in just the right places – you have to understand them beyond the surface definition. Plus, I want to make sure you do not commit (in writing or speaking) a common grammatical error in the ironic category of “trying to sound smart but achieving the opposite.” That’s the error I really try to avoid.
Is knowing the term 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! (or am I?)
I hope you recognized that last remark as a little grammatical joke. Of course, I know I should write “correctly” there (and in the heading above, as well). We must keep our sense of humor, if we’re going to discuss grammatical matters. It can only help. Right?
Well, guess what? I just looked it up, and, as I suspected, we really should not use a question mark after saying “guess what.” But using the ? is “sometimes” considered acceptable in informal writing, such as “most” text messaging. And this accidental finding (See? That’s why I’m always saying, “research as you write”) ties right into the actual subject matter of my “guess what,” in the first place.
Just like the “kinda okay” question mark after “guess what,” my use of “correct” — without the ly that, just above, we just called necessary – can be considered acceptable, especially spoken, in certain (actually, uncertain!) informal settings. I found out this suspected fact (“opinion”?) on the third site I researched.
Something (my “inner writer’s ear”?) was telling me, even as I was writing what my brain knew, that using “correct” as I “wrongly” did (trying for humor) might actually get legitimized if I looked at enough authorities – and it took only three sites to find one that called my intentional mistake “acceptable,” at least in some places.
As you can see, this variance among our readily available grammar “rules” helps to demonstrate what I mean when I ask (in a separate post available here at Up-Wordz.com), Whose rules are we calling the rules?” In terms of the grammar focus of Up-Wordz.com, I consider that last point – and how I got to it – very close to the center of what I’m here to teach you, Reader-student.
Back to adverbs – and ethics
Now, let’s get back to adverbs – not a supposedly comprehensive list of types and terms (aka “rules and tips”), as you can find in many places (not that they all say the same thing!) but just a couple little nuances I have curated for you.
I care about grammar, and so should you; that’s not the question. The question is, “how much to care?” Since I’m writing all this, I have to about grammar – a lot. That’s just part of my teaching ethic (more than my writing ethic). I need to know what I’m “teaching about.” I never stop looking up answers to the questions that pop up as I write. Since I’ve made a life out of teaching all this, I call my compulsion not an obsession, but a duty.
Don’t you wish that certain lame teachers you’ve “had” (tolerated? wondered about? suffered through?) shared that compulsion? Frankly, I do. I told you, I’m a critic. We have our role in society. And critics, like teachers, need to know what they’re talking about. That’s an ethic, Reader-student. They come in many forms.
So here are a few, selected rules and tips, as regards adverbs. I don’t present this information as comprehensive, just important to my system of writing. These are things I find important enough for inclusion in my teaching, including right now.
Maybe, if you took a grammar test, you would, right now, rate in the top quarter (just a guess — 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.
Adverbs “modify” a verb, whether it’s doing, being, or having something
To “modify” a verb (adding some descriptive info about it), simply add the suffix -ly — as in, “My mom sang beautifully,” “the shirt hangs loosely,” and “She talks about tax law informedly.” Okay, you knew that. I’m just starting there. You know me. I always want the foundation in place.
Your “colorful” word is not modifying some 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 (almost always!) use an -ly adverb. (A select few adverbs do not end in -ly, as we will soon see.)
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. Fine, but did you know that the so-called “parts of speech” present our language by classifying word types by their syntactic function? Well, now you do. 😊
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 very 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 damn numb! And whose fault is that? (just kidding). 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.
(Please note: I am skipping a whole grammar lesson that could apply here – but I find it unnecessary to the present topic of adverbs. I refer to a kind of verb we will care a lot more about in Stage 3 of my writing lessons. For the record, I’m referring to a verb type called the “linking verb.”)
I smell a grammar nazi
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. His feelings (somehow or other) count as “bad.” So he feels bad. In this usage, “bad” is serving not as an adverb but an adjective, since it is modifying his feelings (a noun).
\Here’s a parallel: the car is painted red. We would not say the car is painted redly. Right? The word red is not modifying how it was painted; rather, it’s modifying the car – that red car!
In my view, knowing this exception — and others of the same type, such as “she smells bad” – (which is not to say she suffers from anosmia, problems smelling things) — will not change a lot in your life.
For one thing, so few people even understand the exception I just laid out for you, not many would even catch the pretentious error of “I feel badly.” I call the error “pretentious” since the speaker is adding the ly just to show off – but it’s ironically incorrect, at least to the ears of the few who know about the exception.
And this group now includes you! Don’t go bragging, though. Some half-wit-grammar-nazi-wannabe will just have to correct you that you need that ly! (“Sorry, but it’s I feel badly!”) See the humor? If the person seems to mean well, I just let it slide. But if the “corrector” actually does go around, to my knowledge, acting like a self-righteous grammar-nazi, I’ll undress the jerk in front of the group.
Rule to live by: A “grammatical error in speech” is usually no big deal – if it is even caught. But a “false accusation” by a would-be grammar nazi? In my book, that’s a high crime. If you love people enough to care that they know some little rule that you (think you) know, it’s okay to bring it up – privately! Never show off as you show up someone else. That’s an ethic, too.
What will change a lot in your life? For one thing, don’t smell bad! (just a side lesson from learning about adverbs). Well, if you do, then at least nobody will want to make things worse by undressing you! 😊 It’s more like, “Hey, could you throw on a coat?”
Time for a change?
Seriously, your life will change (for the better) if you get into the habit of looking up answers to the grammar questions that pop up as you write — in my system, anyway, which implies writing “intentionally.” And when you do “look it up,” dig around a little deeper, for the exceptions to the rule you’re looking up. Knowing a rule, but not its exceptions, can get you in trouble – especially if you go around smelling like . . . a grammar nazi!
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, dearest Reader-student. And when you smell better, your chances of getting undressed go way up. Just sayin’. I’m only trying to help. Truly!