Hi, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "good" vs. "well".
These are two very common words in English, and we often use them to talk about our states,
our feelings, to describe actions. And you might be wondering, you know, what's the difference
between the two? Which one is an adjective? Which one is an adverb? Is it possible for
one of them to be both? This is what this lesson is about today. So if you've ever wondered,
should I say, "I'm good" or, "They played well", or "They played good", this is the
lesson for you. So today, I have three different situations. Each of them has a question and
an answer. And let's see if you can tell me, do you say "good" or "well" in this situation.
Okay, No. 1, "How are you?" -- probably the most common question that you can ask. And
do you answer with, "I'm good", or "I'm well", or are both possible? Well, this actually
depends on the person's intention with, "How are you?" Are they asking about your emotional
state, or are they asking about your physical state? If you're asking about a person's emotional
state, normally we say, "I'm good." If you're asking about their physical state -- basically,
are they sick? -- generally, we say, "well" for something that relates to your physical
health. So in this situation, both are actually possible. So you can say, "Yeah, I'm good."
"I'm pretty well." "I'm pretty good." Most of the time we say "good" because we mean,
again, that we are emotionally well. When a person asks you, "How are you?" they are
asking about your emotions more often than not. Now, you might say, "Wait. Wait. Wait.
Wait. Hold on. But "well" -- I've heard that "well" is an adverb. "Well" only modifies
actions." That's not actually true. "Well" is both accepted, if you look in any dictionary,
as an adjective and as an adverb. So "good" and "well" -- "good" is an adjective. It's
an adjective; it can only modify nouns. It can only modify things, people, places, things,
okay? "Well" is an adverb, but it's also accepted as an adjective in English.
Okay, let's look at the second situation with this information. So the question is, -"Did
you see the game?" -"Yeah, they played good", or -"Yeah, they played well"? Well, you might
have heard many, many, many native English speakers say this, or if you've watched a
movie, you might have heard this too that they say, "Yeah, they played good." This is
actually incorrect because -- remember: "good" is an adjective, which means it only modifies
nouns. It modifies things, people, places. Here we are modifying a verb. So the verb
is "played". You are describing how they played, the quality of their play. So here, you have
to say "well", okay? So if you're modifying a verb, you have to use "well" because "well"
is the only one of the two which is an adverb. Okay, finally, -"You look sick. Are you okay?"
-"I don't feel good." -"I don't feel well." Okay, in speaking, both of these are accepted.
Both of these are used. In usage, you can use either one. However, grammatically, the
one you should be using is "well" since "well", as we have said, refers more to your actual
physical health, okay? So in this situation, try to use "well" more often than "good".
If you say "good": no problem. Everyone says "good" to this question, too. It's also possible.
However, for questions of physical health, please stay with "well". For questions of
emotional state, you should be using "good", but again, "well" is also accepted. And I'm
just going to circle these two since I circled these two as well.
Okay, guys. So if you'd like to test your understanding of this knowledge, as always,
you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. I'm sure you'll do... "well"? "Good?" You tell me.
Good luck, and take care.