Grammar: When to use "bad" and "badly" in English

Hi, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "bad" vs "badly".

Now, this lesson is a complement to a past lesson that I did on "good" vs. "well". And

with "bad" vs. "badly", it's actually a very similar kind of case.

So very simply, first, let's look at the parts of speech that "bad" and "badly" represent.

As I have written here, "bad" is an adjective, which means that it describes either a state

of something or someone or a feeling, okay? So think of states and perceptions, feelings,

with "bad". "Badly" is an adverb. Now, again, an adverb

usually modifies a verb. It can also modify adjectives and other adverbs -- generally

verbs, though. And it describes how you do, how you perform, or how you react to something,

okay? On the board, I have a variety of different

sentences, and in all of them, you have to decide whether I should be using "bad" or

"badly" to complete the sentence. So as we go through this, just always use these two

definitions as a personal reference, okay? Sentence No. 1 says, "He felt bad/badly about

missing her birthday." So what do you think? "He felt badly about missing her birthday"

or "He felt bad about missing her birthday"? If we go back to the rules, if we're talking

about feelings, it's always "bad", okay? "He felt bad." Now, if I said, "He felt badly

about missing her birthday", this would mean that you're modifying the verb "felt", and

you're actually trying to say that he felt "badly", like his sense, his perception of

feeling, of touch, is very poor, which doesn't make the sentence make any sense, okay?

So second sentence says, "She did bad/badly on her chemistry exam." So let's look back

here. How you do/perform/react to something. Okay. How did she do on her chemistry exam?

"She did badly." She performed badly. Okay? "I twisted my ankle." Okay. How did you twist

your ankle? Well, really, really badly. Okay? So "bad" or "badly", actually. And I think

I gave you the answer, so -- how did she twist her ankle? The quality of the injury. "She

twisted it badly." When she twisted it in the moment of the action, it was really bad,

so she did it badly, she did the action badly, okay? Sorry. I'm repeating myself a lot. "Bad",

"badly" -- you will be sick of hearing these words by the end of this lesson.

Next one: "He is a bad singer" or "He is a badly singer"? Now, again, a singer, a person

who sings a song, [sings "lah lah lah"], etc., and we're talking about the state of this

person. What kind of singer is he? So we're modifying "singer", so "He is a bad singer."

Now, remember: "badly" -- there's no verb here that you're modifying, right? You can't

really modify the verb "to be" in this situation with "badly". You can't say, "He is badly"

just by itself, okay? So next one: "They felt bad" or "They felt

badly about coming late." If we go back to the rules -- feelings, right? So how do you

feel? You feel bad. Internal state. "They felt bad about coming late." So they came

to a meeting. They came to a party, a movie, something -- oh, sorry. I feel bad about that,

okay? Next one: "She danced bad" or "She danced

badly at her recital". So maybe she dances ballet, and they had a performance. A performance

is like a recital. And she danced -- you're talking about the quality of her dancing.

So how you perform something -- how you do something is, in this situation, "badly".

So how did she dance? "She danced badly." Now, "This tastes bad" or "This tastes badly"?

Now, what are we talking about here? Are we talking about -- "this", whatever it is, whether

it's a soup, a sandwich, a hamburger, a steak; doesn't matter. You're talking about the state

of the thing. You're talking about the flavor, the taste, the internal state, okay? So when

we go back here, "This tastes bad." Now, again, if we said, "This tastes badly", the meaning

would be that -- let's imagine it's a steak. So this means that the steak can eat other

things and that the steak tastes things badly, okay? It means that it doesn't have a sense

of taste, that the steak can't taste things very well because its tongue is not good,

okay? So you can imagine the image is not very appetizing I guess. I wouldn't want to

eat a steak that was talking. Although before it's a steak, it's a cow, but that's another

topic. Let's not get into that. And finally, "Their reasons didn't seem so

bad." Okay, so here, the topic, the subject, is their reasons, their reasons for doing

something. Now, we're talking about how the reasons did something? Are we talking about

the state of the reasons? The quality of them? Okay. In this situation, when you have verbs

like "seem" or "feel" or "appear", generally, we use the adjective form, okay? So "Their

reasons didn't seem so bad." We're talking about the state of their reasons.

Okay, guys. If you'd like to test your understanding of this material, and again, go through "bad",

"badly", do more examples like this, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. And

I wish you guys luck. I hope that you don't do bad -- or badly? -- on the quiz. You tell

me which one is correct. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, as always.

Take care, guys. I'll see you later.