英语 英语 日语 日语 韩语 韩语 法语 法语 德语 德语 西班牙语 西班牙语 意大利语 意大利语 阿拉伯语 阿拉伯语 葡萄牙语 葡萄牙语 越南语 越南语 俄语 俄语 芬兰语 芬兰语 泰语 泰语 泰语 丹麦语 泰语 对外汉语

英语语法:174 Good Versus Well

时间:2010-07-03 02:55来源:互联网 提供网友:飘絮330813   字体: [ ]
特别声明:本栏目内容均从网络收集或者网友提供,供仅参考试用,我们无法保证内容完整和正确。如果资料损害了您的权益,请与站长联系,我们将及时删除并致以歉意。
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Grammar Girl here.

Today's topic is well versus1 good.

It's such a simple little question: How are you? But I've heard from people who feel a twinge of trepidation2 or even full-blown frustration3 every time they have to decide whether to say they're good or they're well.

“I'm good” is what you're likely to hear in general conversation, but there are grammar nitpickers out there who will chide4 you if you say it. The wonderful news is that those nitpickers are wrong: it's perfectly5 acceptable to say, “I'm good,” and you shouldn't have to shamefully6 submit to teasing remarks such as the time-honored and leering, “How good are you?”

The nitpickers will tell you that well is an adverb (and therefore modifies verbs) and that good is an adjective (and therefore modifies nouns), but the situation isn't that simple.

The key is to understand how linking verbs differ from action verbs. (Trust me, this is worth it so you can look people in the eye and say, “I'm good,” with absolute confidence.)

First, let's talk about action verbs. They're easy; they describe actions. Verbs such as run, jump, and swim are all action verbs. If you want to describe an action verb, you use an adverb like well. You could say: He runs well; she jumps well; they swim well. Well is an adverb that relates to all those action verbs.

Linking verbs, on the other hand, are a little bit more complicated. Linking verbs aren't about actions as much as they are about connecting other words together (1, 2). They're also sometimes called “copulative verbs.”

I think of the verb to be as the quintessential linking verb. The word is is a form of the verb to be, and if I say, He is yellow, the main purpose of is is really just to link the word he with the word yellow. Other linking verbs include seem, appear, look, become, and verbs that describe senses, such as feel and smell. That isn't a comprehensive list of linking verbs—there are at least 60 in the English language (1)—but I hope that will give you an idea of how they work.

One complication is that some verbs—such as the sensing verbs—can be both linking verbs and action verbs (2, 3). A trick that will help you figure out if you're dealing7 with a linking verb is to see if you can replace the verb with a form of to be; if so, then it's probably a linking verb (1, 4). For example, you can deduce that feel is a linking verb in the sentence He feels bad because if you replace feels with the word is, the sentence still makes sense: He is bad. On the other hand, if you have a sentence such as He feels badly, and you replace feels with is, it doesn't make sense anymore: He is badly. So in that case you know that feel is functioning as an action verb.

OK, so now you understand the difference between linking verbs and action verbs. That might seem like a detour8 on the way to learning why it is OK to say, "I'm good," but it's important because the thing people seem to forget is that it's standard to use adjectives—such as good—after linking verbs (5, 6). When you do it, they are called predicate adjectives, and they refer back to the noun before the linking verb. That's why, even though good is primarily an adjective, it is OK to say, "I am good": am is a linking verb, and you use adjectives after linking verbs.

Aside from the linking-verb-action-verb trickiness9, another reason people get confused about this topic is that well can be both an adverb and a predicate adjective. As I said earlier, in the sentence He swam well, well is an adverb that describes how he swam. But when you say, “I am well,” you're using well as a predicate adjective. That's fine, but most sources say well is reserved to mean “healthy” when it's used in this way (1, 3, 4). So if you are recovering from a long illness and someone is inquiring about your health, it's appropriate to say, “I am well,” but if you're just describing yourself on a generally good day and nobody's asking specifically about your health, a more appropriate response is, “I am good.”

Finally, it's very important to remember that it's wrong to use good as an adverb after an action verb. For example, it's wrong to say, “He swam good.” Cringe! The proper sentence is He swam well, because swam is an action verb and it needs an adverb to describe it. Remember, you can only use adjectives such as good and bad after linking verbs, you can't use them after action verbs.

That's all.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 versus wi7wU     
prep.以…为对手,对;与…相比之下
参考例句:
  • The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
  • The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。
2 trepidation igDy3     
n.惊恐,惶恐
参考例句:
  • The men set off in fear and trepidation.这群人惊慌失措地出发了。
  • The threat of an epidemic caused great alarm and trepidation.流行病猖獗因而人心惶惶。
3 frustration 4hTxj     
n.挫折,失败,失效,落空
参考例句:
  • He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
  • He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
4 chide urVzQ     
v.叱责;谴责
参考例句:
  • However,they will chide you if you try to speak French.然而,如果你试图讲法语,就会遭到他们的责骂。
  • He thereupon privately chide his wife for her forwardness in the matter.于是他私下责备他的妻子,因为她对这种事热心。
5 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
6 shamefully 34df188eeac9326cbc46e003cb9726b1     
可耻地; 丢脸地; 不体面地; 羞耻地
参考例句:
  • He misused his dog shamefully. 他可耻地虐待自己的狗。
  • They have served me shamefully for a long time. 长期以来,他们待我很坏。
7 dealing NvjzWP     
n.经商方法,待人态度
参考例句:
  • This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
  • His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。
8 detour blSzz     
n.绕行的路,迂回路;v.迂回,绕道
参考例句:
  • We made a detour to avoid the heavy traffic.我们绕道走,避开繁忙的交通。
  • He did not take the direct route to his home,but made a detour around the outskirts of the city.他没有直接回家,而是绕到市郊兜了个圈子。
9 trickiness 370fe65c39d1f7e49ee756f577dfc103     
n.欺骗;狡猾;棘手;微妙
参考例句:
  • These puzzles are famous for their trickiness. 这些智力游戏以其机巧而闻名。 来自互联网
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎点击提交分享给大家。
------分隔线----------------------------
TAG标签:   英语语法  Good  Versus  Well  英语语法  Good  Versus  Well
顶一下
(0)
0%
踩一下
(0)
0%
最新评论 查看所有评论
发表评论 查看所有评论
请自觉遵守互联网相关的政策法规,严禁发布色情、暴力、反动的言论。
评价:
表情:
验证码:
听力搜索
推荐频道
论坛新贴