Bad vs Badly, what is the difference?
Compare it Versus > Grammar > Difference between Bad and Badly
First published on 23rd of October 2015, updated most recently on 2nd January 2023
Edited by Mary S., secondary/high school English teacher
Bad or Badly
You really must not feel bad if someone points out to you that the particular issue has been handled badly.
In the above sentence, do you think the words bad and badly have been used correctly?
Simple though these might sound, often there is a lot of confusion amongst writers as to whether to use ‘bad’ or ‘badly’ as a form of expression.
If you wish to learn how to use the two words correctly, the best way is to distinguish between them in terms of which part of speech they belong to and how they should be applied.
Differences between bad and badly
At the very basic level, ‘bad’ is an adjective and ‘badly’ (like a lot of words that end in -ly) is an adverb, meaning bad is used to describe a noun whereas badly serves to describe a verb. Only when bad relinquishes its role as an adjective and begins to behave as an adverb.
This is owing to the fact that a verb could be an action verb or a linking verb wherein action verbs denote how you respond to something around you and linking verbs refer to the way you feel about it.
Then there are verbs that could behave as both linking and action verbs and this is the tricky part since you are likely to wonder which would be correct.
So in order to distinguish between bad and badly, you must first figure out whether it is being used as an action verb or a linking verb.
One way of doing so entails replacing the verb with a ‘to be’ form like is, was, am and so on. Therefore, suppose you have a sentence that goes ‘I feel bad’, to decide whether you must use bad or badly, you would need to replace the word ‘feel’ with ‘am’.
In case of bad, it becomes ‘I am bad’ which sounds correct and in case of badly it becomes ‘I am badly’ which is incorrect.
Confusion pertaining to other words that also relate to senses like look, taste and smell should also be sorted out in the same manner. Just replacing them with forms of ‘to be’ will enable you to decide whether to use bad or badly.
Do you have anything to add to our differences between bad and badly?
If you do, write them in the comments section below.
References
- Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, accessed in January 2023, link to Oxford here