Английский язык > English Lessons with Alex (engVid AlexESLvid) > When to use good and well - English Vocabulary

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.