Ooh, do you know The Chaos? A poem written by a Dutch English teacher to demonstrate how English pronunciation doesn’t make any sense. Most native English speakers don’t even believe their pronunciation is nonsensical until I make them read this poem!
gracer,
I had never heard nor read this poem, but I just love it to death!!! I tried to get through it, making all the corrections in my head as I read along, but I couldn’t do it.
I thank you VERY MUCH for the laughs and this very insightful poem!!!
Thanks
Quasi
Well, well. We gotta get some things clear.
“I feel good” and “I feel well” are both grammatically correct, but mean two different things. Wait a minute. “I feel well” itself means two different things (one of which doesn’t make much sense, but is still good grammar).
“Good” is strictly an adjective and strictly modifies a noun. It means, roughly, “having some desirable attribute”
But “well” has (at least) two distinct meanings, one as an adjective and one as a adverb! As an adverb, it means about the same as “good” except that it modifies a verb (or any of the other kinds of words an adverb can modify). But “well” is also an adjective, meaning “healthy”.
Thus:
“I feel good” – Means I have the sense that there is something good about myself. That could mean I feel healthy, or simply that I am in an up-beat mood, or that I have been well-behaved.
“I feel well” – Most likely, this means “I feel healthy”, where “healthy” is an adjective modifying “I”. But it could mean “I am capable of doing an admirable job of feeling”, where “well” is an adverb clarifying how I perform the act of feeling. Not exactly very sensical, but grammatical.
All these different uses help to explain why these two words give such fits to ESL people!
And this is all in addition to the use of “Well” as a general vague interjection!
So glad you like it Quasi, I love it too! I know what you mean, I still slip up when I read it out loud…
Now show it to anyone who doesn’t believe you when you say it is hard to learn English pronunciation!
I agree. I feel well is my way of saying I feel a physical object with great detail or accuracy. I feel good means I feel healthy.