Feel bad feel badly

[Barb_D]

Originally Posted by dmwilson

I understand your explanation, but it still doesn't ring true to me. Although I am not a teacher, I am an avid fan of the english language and using it correctly. Whether the word "feel" is used as a tactile sense or sense of emotion, it is still a verb. I am not bad. I feel badly. Irregular verb or not, feel is a verb and the word badly is describing how I feel. A descriptive word that answers "how" is an adverb. The adverb form of bad is badly. I have a feeling my 9th grade english teacher is rolling over in her grave!

Hello dmwilson,
If your 9th grade English teacher is turning over in her grave, its over her omission in teaching you about copular verbs. See this, among other sources: Linking Verbs

[Pumkin]

Grammar is not a question of something "feeling right" (or should that be "rightly" : smile). You do not feel "sickly" but rather "sick"; you do not feel goodly about something but rather good. You are modifying the subject not the verb -- an adverb is thus incorrect. Many people "feel" that some grammar choices are correctly (smile) and are feeling completely wrongly -- English is being machine gunned by this sort of approach a zillion times a day by people over-correcting into illiterate speech.