well, is that good?

by | Jul 20, 2010 | Grammar

In a recent interview aired on channel Star Vijay, Gopinath interviewed a Tamil actor. The actor was recalling how he felt it difficult to perform certain dance movements. When Gopinath asked the actor how one of his co-actors dances, he said,

“He is a good dancer; uhm,…he is well.”

Well? You said, “Well”?

All right. That’s understandable. Even the well-educated find it difficult to differentiate between when to use an adjective and an adverb.

Here goes the basic lesson: If you want to describe a noun, use an adjective; if you want to describe a verb, use an adverb.

So if you want to say that he is good at dancing, what you need is an adjective, not an adverb. What is expected of you is “He is good” and not “He is well”.

Of course, well can be an adjective, but certainly not in this context; as an adjective, it refers to the state of being in good health, state or position.

0 Comments
Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Posts

Appositives, the twins of Grammarville

Appositives, the twins of Grammarville

Imagine this village, Grammarville, with three pairs of twins who’re like the grammar concept called appositives: the Siamese twins – super attached, just like how necessary appositives are for a sentence’s meaning; non-identical twins – not-so-tied, giving extra details like non-restrictive appositives; and mischievous identical twins ¬– context, like knowing which twin’s who, decides their use. Identifying twins needs attention – so is the case for editors!

Using boldface for formatting

Using boldface for formatting

Three common types of formatting followed in the publishing industry are italics, boldface, and underlines. In a previous post, we discussed the role of italics in formatting text. In this post, let’s discuss some occurrences where boldface is used. Headings As you...