Learning English

Adjective or adverb?

How are you feeling? Are you feeling good or are you feeling well? The answer to that question you might expect to be the adverb 'well', but you will often hear the adjective 'good' being used in this situation. Which is right? Tim answers a question about this, with the help of Tim.

Watch the video and complete the activity

Summary

Some verbs are classed as link (or linking) verbs. 

Link verbs are followed by a word that gives information about the subject. The information is not about the way the subject is doing something, but about the subject itself.

Link verbs are followed by adjectives (or nouns, but here, we're just looking at adjectives.)

Many link verbs can also be action verbs. Action verbs are followed by adverbs.

• He looked happy at his party.
  Here, look is a link verb. The adjective happy does not describe the manner in which the subject is looking. It describes the state of the subject, the appearance.
  
  
• He looked happily at his grandchildren playing.
  Here, look is an action verb. The adverb happily describes how the subject is doing the action of looking.

The verb to be is always a link verb. As such, it is followed by an adjective. Therefore it's perfectly correct to say: "I'm good!" when asked how you are.

So, is "I'm well," actually wrong?

Well is usually considered to be the adverbial form of good. So following the information above it might seem as if it would be wrong to use it in this context. However, well is also an adjective, particularly when referring to health, so it can also be used quite correctly.

Link verb or action verb?

There is a simple way to identify if a verb is a link verb or an action verb. If you change the verb to the verb to be, does the sentence still make sense grammatically and does it still mean more or less the same? If so, it's a link verb:

• He looked happy at his party. -> He was happy. = Yes, this still makes sense. Look is a link verb.
• He looked happily at his grandchildren playing. - > He was happily at his grandchildren playing. = No, this does not make sense. Look is an action verb.

Adjectives after action verbs

Is this sentence correct?

• He sings really bad.

First, let's find out if this is a link verb or an action verb. What is this sentence about? The person, or the way the person sings? It's about the way he sings; the way he does the activity of singing. If we change the verb sing to is, does the sentence still make sense?

• He is really bad.

It still makes sense grammatically, but the meaning is completely different. It's now about him, rather than his singing.

So we can say that in this sentence, sing is an action verb. Therefore it should be followed by an adverb; it should be followed by badly not bad.

• He sings really badly.

Strictly speaking it is grammatically wrong to use adjectives after action verbs, but you may hear it in informal speech, in films and on T.V, particularly in American English.

To do

Can you tell link verbs from action verbs? Test yourself with our quiz. 

End of session

That's the end of this session. Well done.

Many thanks to the staff and students of Bell London for their help with this feature.

Next

Coming up, a date at the White Elephant, the English learning restaurant.