Adverbsaries (bad vs. badly)

November 28th, 2011 · · Comics, Confusables, Hypercorrection 7 comments
#2

Hey Chris, where's Eric? He just left. He was really mad. Why, what happened? Well we got into a big fight, and now I feel badly. 'I feel bad' is the opposite of 'I feel good.' 'I feel badly' means you're not very good at feeling.

This title is so bad I had to use it.

Note: dictionary.com’s usage note says “feel badly” is standard, but “feel bad” is better. Grammar Girl agrees.

Bad vs. Badly Quiz

Fill in the blank with bad or badly. Post your answers in the comments!

  1. Those muppets treated Jake so ____!
  2. You can’t skate down Devil’s Backbone because you skate ____.
  3. How ____ do you want to eat those noodles?
  4. You look really ____ ensconced in velvet.
Direct link for embedding: http://www.grammarcomic.com/files/grammar-block-002-adverbsaries.jpg
Tags: , , , ,