Here I Go Again…

 

I try, God knows I do. Ever since I made the mistake of writing a blog post lamenting the frequent disregard for the fundamental rules of the English language, I have tried to remain silent while people who should know better assert how badly they feel about this, that, and the other.

Many of my fellow writers left comments of thanks for explaining the proper use of bad vs. badly and a host of other pitfalls of the language. I have no way of knowing if they were being sincere or if they were typing with that look on their faces that says “Thank you soooo much, you smug b*tch.”

Several other commenters left no such ambiguity for me to entertain. I was called old in two or three different languages; uptight; old-fashioned, and irrelevant. At least they used adjectives properly.

Today, however, a writer I respect mentioned feeling badly about the pain caused by yet another mistake, or something along those lines. Last night, a television journalist admitted to feeling badly about the way things are deteriorating in Washington, D.C.

I’ m beginning to think I only imagined I learned a specific rule about the use of bad and badly. I’m also beginning to wonder why I allow it to bother me, since I hear the misuse more often than not. Sooner or later it will fall into that language category called common practice, and the few of us still saying “I feel bad about that” will be the oddballs.

Here’s the thing: the verb to feel, like so many other verbs in our convoluted and difficult language, has two distinct meanings. The first meaning is in the realm of the physical and relates to the act of touching another person or object with one or more parts of the body. When to feel is used to describe physical touching, an action, the adverb badly is indicated, if, in fact one can do that in a less than good way. Somehow, “I felt the texture of the fur badly” just doesn’t seem to make much sense.

The second meaning of the verb to feel relates to emotions or states of being. No one I know would ever write this sentence: “I felt so goodly when the child handed me the flowers.” They would say they felt good. And that is because the verb to feel is in this case a linking verb and functions very similarly to the verb to be.

Linking verbs show no action. Their primary purpose is to connect an adjective with the subject noun or pronoun. “I feel bad.” “He seems nice.” “You smell great!”

Other linking verbs include appear, look, become, and verbs that describe senses, such as feel and smell.

As we are discussing here with feel, some verbs can go both ways. A quick and dirty test to determine if you have a linking verb on your hands is to try the same sentence substituting the verb with the correct version of to be. “I am bad.” “He is nice.” “You are great.”

If it still works, you have a linking verb. If it sounds totally wrong, it is an action verb and requires an adverb to describe the subject.

Don’t feel bad if you realize you have been badly mistaken about how to use the two words correctly. How bad could you be if 80% of the people around you badly mangle the same grammar? Hmmmmm. Maybe I am a dinosaur.

Oh, and one more thing. If something isn’t making sense or fitting into a model you have come to expect, please don’t say it doesn’t jive, unless you mean to say it doesn’t do a blues inspired dance or style of music. The word is gibe.

Could somebody please come and help me down from my high horse?