Good and Well | Confusing English Words

Eat Sleep Dreamers, do you know how to use good and well correctly? It can be confusing,

right? So confusing, even David Beckham gets it wrong sometimes. That's why I'm here to

show you the difference between them so that you can feel confident using them correctly

today. Are you ready? Let's do this!

Ok, good and well have a very similar meaning but there is one huge difference between them.

Drum roll? Good is an adjective, well is and adverb. But what does that mean? Explain what

does that mean? Ok, I'll explain to you.

Let's start with good as an adjective. Now adjectives modify nouns. An example sentence

'She speaks really good English' the noun there is English and modifying it is the adjective

good English. Well is an adverb and adverbs modify verbs. Let's look at an example 'She

speaks English really well.' So where is the verb there? Speaks, yeah? It's a verb 'to

speak' so speaks is the verb and well is modifying the verb. She speaks English really well.

Let's put those into another example, I went to an Ed Sheeran concert last night. 'The

concert was really good' alright, so concert is the noun and I'm modifying it with good.

'Ed Sheeran sang really well.' So, the verb is sing, sang, he sang really well. Well is

the adverb modifying the verb. But hold on, we have to be careful. There's a common mistake

I hear so often when it comes to using well, it's this one. 'She plays well the piano'

now the words are correct but they are in the wrong order. Now word order is really

important here. The adverb well, doesn't usually go in between the verb and the object. The

verb is play and the object the piano. We put the adverb after the object. So it should

be 'She plays the piano well' How are you doing so far? Does that all make sense? So

good is an adjective, well is an adverb. Ok, let's take it a bit further. Well is an adverb

but it's also an adjective but the meaning is slightly different. Here we mean well to

be in good health. If you say 'You are looking well' it means you are looking in good health.

Or 'I'm not feeling very well' again I'm not feeling in good health. The big question a

lot of people ask me is Tom what's the correct response to How are you? Do I say I'm good

or I'm well? The answer, both of them are absolutely fine. I'm well is fine because

well there is a the adjective and of course it means in good health so how are you? Yeah,

I'm well. So yeah that's ok and I'm good absolutely fine. I, the subject, am is a linking verb,

ok so it joins the subject and the adjective. So I'm good, completely fine. So whichever

one you prefer, choose that.

Now if the question was How are you doing? the answer is slightly different. How are

you doing? Doing is a verb so which one do we want? That's right, how are you doing?

I'm doing well because well is an adverb. So how are you? I'm good, I'm well. How are

you doing? I'm doing well.

Now Eat Sleep Dreamers, you know that I teach real natural English so if I didn't mention

this secret then I wouldn't be doing my job. Ok, are you ready for Tom's secret about good

and well? These days in spoken English I've noticed it's become more common for people

to use good as an adverb. For example your colleague gave a really good presentation,

you might say 'You did good today'. Now grammatically it's not right! It's not correct. You did,

did is a verb, you did well. But it's, I hear it more often these days. I don't know why,

it could be American English coming into British English, I don't know. I try to stay away

from it, I'll use an adverb with a verb, so you did well. It's just a pattern that I've

noticed that you guys should be aware of. Obviously for you I suggest trying to be as

grammatically correct as possible. So try and use an adverb with a verb so you did well.

Certainly if you need English for an exam like IELTS, FCE or CAE or English for work

you know, be as grammatically correct as you can be. Guys if you've found this video useful

please give it a massive thumbs up. Also if you know anyone that is trying to learn English,

please share this video with them, help them improve their English as well. Thanks for

watching, this is Tom, the English Hipster and you know what time it is. It's time to

take your English to the next level!