Adjective and Adverb—Same Word

Third panel. The adverb usage of “good” happens to be incorrect. We have an averb for that usage! (It’s “well,” but you knew that, right?)

“Skate good” is wrong because in this sentence “to skate” is a verb. “Good skater” is correct because “skater” is a noun.

English is a tricky language because many words can have more than one function, but this isn’t an example of that.

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Real and hungry are indeed adjectives, and really is an adverb. And we’re supposed to modify adjectives with adverbs.

Though I gotta admit that “real hungry” sounds okay. Still, you sound classier if you say it correctly.

Here’s a good example of an adjective-adverb combination that people often get wrong:

Our ancestors probably didn’t smell good, but did they smell well? 

https://newatlas.com/biology/neanderthal-denisovan-odor-receptors-smell-sensitivity/

• “Good” is an adjective; it refers to nouns.
• “Well” is an adverb; it refers to verbs.

Do you know the exception? (Well is an adjective referring to illness, as in “I don’t feel well.”)

Here’s the picture that goes with the article:

Unlike many languages, adjectives in English say almost nothing about the words they modify. Not gender, and not number. Adjectives don’t say whether the word they refer to is plural, so we don’t have a plural form for adjectives. Here’s an incorrect sentence from an astronomy article:

Massive meteoroid strike on Mars creates 500-feet wide crater, unearths boulder-sized blocks of water ice.

https://interestingengineering.com/science/meteoroid-strike-mars-water-ice

So it’s a “500-foot wide crater.” Adjectives stay singular. Harrumpf.

Here’s a picture:

First the comic. Can you explain the difference?

“Well” is an adverb. It describes his ability to detect odors.

“Good” is an adjective. It describes his body odor.

Did you get the answer correct?