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Should a lecturer say

"He felt bad" or "He felt badly"?
"His tooth ached so bad he couldn't sleep" or "His tooth ached so badly he couldn't sleep"?

Are both forms acceptable in formal speech?

Centaurus
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  • Use badly; there is no reason to misuse an adjective when the adverb exists! – Gary's Student Aug 10 '14 at 22:55
  • 'Bad' (as an adverb) is informal. Use 'badly' in formal speech. – Mitch Aug 10 '14 at 22:57
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    You "feel bad" if you are sick. You "feel badly" if you have a poor sense of touch. Would you say "I feel happy" or "I feel happily"; "I feel sad" or "I feel sadly"? – Peter Shor Aug 10 '14 at 22:57
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    Use whichever one is correct (see the extended discussion at the previous thread). In 'He felt bad [...]', the predicative adjective is required if the sentence mirrors eg 'He felt cold'. Using 'bad' as an adverb (His tooth ached so bad he couldn't sleep) is not a formal usage, though. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 10 '14 at 22:58
  • @EdwinAshworth My question is about formal speech. – Centaurus Aug 10 '14 at 23:41
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    My answer is about the two different constructions involved. Whatever the register. But "His tooth ached so bad he couldn't sleep" (where 'bad' is indisputably forced into duty as an adverb) sounds distinctly informal or even slang to my British ears. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 11 '14 at 00:11
  • Sense verbs of a certain type take adjectives not adverbs. “You look/sound/feel/smell/taste good/bad.” – tchrist Aug 11 '14 at 02:49
  • @tchrist: These are called sense verbs, not "verbs of a certain type". – John Lawler Aug 11 '14 at 03:12
  • @JohnLawler I was trying to dodge around the see/look and hear/listen issue, because I forgot how to call the one side of those two. I guess they’re active in that they (can) take direct objects. Those ones don’t take predicate adjectives. – tchrist Aug 11 '14 at 11:13
  • They're transitive in that they can take direct objects. Transitive verbs may or may not be active (though actives are probly in the majority). As for predicate adjectives, that's a different story. – John Lawler Aug 11 '14 at 14:51

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In general, when someone says they feel bad, it's expressing an emotion. The confusion here is due to the fact that feel is both an action verb and a linking verb.

A quick test on whether a verb is linking or an action verb is the am test.

In this sentences, you can replace feel with am.

"I feel bad" becomes "I am bad"

Since you can make the verb swap, you know that feel is a linking verb describing a state. Bad is an adjective, and you use adjectives to describe linking verbs.

When using badly in this form, you can't replace feel with am.

"I feel badly" becomes "I am badly"

This swap doesn't make any sense. Since you can't make the swap, you know that feel is an action verb in that sentence; it's describing an action.

In short, "I feel bad" describes a state of being, whereas the use of badly should be used to describe an action, such as "he smells badly".

ObiWanShanobi
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  • “Adjectives describe linking verbs”? How does that work? I think you mean that they take adjectival complements, but that doesn’t mean those adjectives describe those verbs. Try it with poor and poorly. – tchrist Aug 11 '14 at 03:31
  • Linking verbs are more subtle. They describe emotions or states of being. The verb “to be” is the linking verb most people know about. When you say “I am bad,” you're describing your state. You can think of linking verbs as linking a subject to its state. Forms of “to be” include “is,” “am,” “was,” “were,” and “are.” – ObiWanShanobi Aug 11 '14 at 03:33
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    "He smells badly" means his nose does a poor job of distinguishing odors. If you mean he exudes an offensive scent, you should write, "He smells bad." – Michael Lorton Aug 11 '14 at 03:58