Revised as of
26 June 2023
People tend to confuse I feel bad with I feel badly. And it does make a world of difference.
If you should feel badly, it would indicate that you can’t feel things very well, you have a bad sense of touch, whereas if you feel bad, then you are upset.
| Consider the following: | |
|---|---|
| The road badly needs to be resurfaced.
It really needs resurfacing. |
The road needs to be resurfaced badly.
Yeah, be sure and do a lousy job on it. Credit to: Doran |
| She was hurt in a bad accident.
The accident was terrible. |
She was hurt badly in the accident.
The accident wasn’t so terrible, but she almost lost her life. Credit to: Bad |
Try not to feel too badly about it, you’re in some pretty bad company!
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
If you found this post on “Bad versus Badly” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
You may also want to explore “Bad vs Worse vs Worst“.
| Bad | Badly |
|---|---|
Crushed Saturn is courtesy of a friend of MrFish’s under the GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 license(s), via Wikimedia Commons. — Ouch, ooh, that looks bad. |
Ethan Hawke, 2013, by Siebbi is under the CC BY 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Yep, that’s some badly bleached hair, all right. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective; Adverb | Adjective; Adverb |
| Adjective: Of poor quality, inferior or defective Unpleasant or unwelcome Food decayed, putrid Part of the body being injured, diseased, causing pain Regretful, guilty, ashamed about something Morally depraved Worthless, not valid [Informal] Good, excellent Adverb: |
Adjective: [Informal] Guilty, regretful Adverb: To a great or serious degree, severely |
| Examples: | |
| Adjective: It’s a bad diet. That’s bad news. The play got bad reviews. With the electricity out, all the food will go bad. I’ve got a bad back. I feel bad. If you should “feel badly”, it would indicate that you can’t feel things very well. Don’t use bad language. He wrote a bad check. They want the baddest, best-lookin’ Corvette there is. Adverb: That TV program that was on last night was real bad. |
Adjective: I felt badly about my unfriendliness of the previous evening. He should be too badly off. I feel badly about your reaction to my remark. Adverb: The war was going badly. The building was badly damaged by fire. I wanted a baby so badly. It was a badly managed company. Try not to think badly of me. She realized she was behaving rather badly. Things had begun to go badly wrong. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: bad-tempered, badass Noun: badass, badassery, baddie, baddies, baddy, badlands, badmash, badness Verb, transitive: bad-mouth |
Adverb: worse, worst |
| History of the Word: | |
| Middle English, perhaps representing the Old English bǣddel. | |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Bad versus Badly
Apple Dictionary.com
“Bad vs. Badly.” GrammarBook.com. n.d. Web. n.d. <http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/definitions/bad-vs-badly/>.
Doran, Robert. “Copy Editors: What They Really O??” Catherine Ryan Howard.com. 15 Oct 2013. Web. n.d. <http://catherineryanhoward.com/2013/10/15/copy-editors-what-they-really-o/>.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Evil Rabbit by Alexus_Fotos is in the public domain, via Pixabay.
