A Word, Please: For this word choice, it’s all well and good

When someone asks how you’re doing, can you respond “I am good”? Or is the only correct form “I am well”? And why?

That’s what a caller asked New Yorker copy editor and author Mary Norris on a recent call-in show on Southern California’s KPCC radio. Norris’ answer: “I am well” is the only correct form because that sentence requires an adverb.

Oops.

I want to believe Norris had simply misspoken — that she was thrown off guard by the pressures of a live call-in show — and that’s possible. But it really sounded as though she didn’t understand the grammar.

Not seeing the “oops” here? Allow me to illustrate: Which is correct: “I am happy” or “I am happily”? “He is nice” or “He is nicely”? “We are calm” or “We are calmly”?

As you can see, sentences whose structure is a noun or pronoun plus a form of “be” use an adjective, not an adverb, after the verb.

Why? Well, as we discussed in this column a few weeks ago, “be” is a member of a special group of verbs called “linking” or “copular” verbs. Unlike other verbs whose job is to express action, linking verbs reflect back on the subject. A modifier that follows a linking verb, as do “happy” and “nice” in the examples above, doesn’t describe an action. It describes a noun — the subject. Adjectives describe nouns. Adverbs describe actions.

Linking verbs convey states of being or the senses. So the category includes “seem,” “appear” and “become” as well as “taste,” “smell” and “feel.”

With some linking verbs, especially “be,” it’s easy to see how they refer to the subject. “I am happy” is a perfect example. With “feel,” “taste” and “smell,” it’s not always intuitive. But it’s nonetheless true that “I feel bad” is the grammatical alternative to “I feel badly” (unless you’re talking about a lack of skill at touching things) because “feel,” in this sense, is a linking verb.

So if “I am” calls for an adjective instead of an adverb, does that mean that “I am well” is wrong and “I am good” the only grammatical option? Nope. “I am well” is grammatical. Why? Because this “well” just happens to be an adjective.

We usually think of “well” as an adverb. But like so many other words, it’s more than one part of speech. “Well” is an adverb roughly equivalent to “good.” It’s also a noun meaning a hole in the ground leading to water. And — the one we care about today — it’s also an adjective meaning “in good health.” The adjective “well” is a distinct word from the adverb “well.”

When you say “I am well,” you’re using the same syntax found in “I am happy” and “He is nice” and “I feel bad.” It’s a subject, plus a linking verb, plus the linking verb’s natural complement: an adjective.

Does all this mean you can’t answer the question “How are you?” with “I am good”? That’s a common belief because we usually think of the adjective “good” as meaning morally upright or of high quality or skilled at something.

If those were the only definitions of “good,” then “I am good” would be wrong if meant to say you’re in good health.

But those aren’t the only definitions of “good.” Webster’s New World College Dictionary, the go-to source for most news publishing, notes that one definition of “good” is “healthy.” Plus, the dictionary adds, in informal use, it also means “well.”

So when speaking informally, you can say “I am good” to mean that you’re in good health. The problem is, when you do, many people — including people who should know better — will think you’re wrong. But if you say “I am well,” they’ll know you’re right, even if they don’t understand why.

JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of “The Best Punctuation Book, Period.” She can be reached at [email protected].