1. Adjectives and Adverbs – Linking Verbs
Writing Lab
Adjectives and Adverbs – Linking Verbs

2. Linking verbs
Linking verbs are used to show a “state of being” of the subject, not what the subject is doing. Some of these are as follows:
The forms of be: is, am, are, was, were, been, being
The sense verbs: feel (as an emotion), look, smell, taste, sound, feel
Other verbs with linking use: appear, become, remain, stay, grow, seem

3. Adjectives with linking verbs
Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns, specifying such things as how many, what kind, and which one.
A predicate adjective usually follows a linking verb.
He is strange.
I am slow.
The response was quick.
She feels bad.
We are poor.
Think of the verb as simply connecting the noun and the adjective. The adjective is describing the quality of the noun, not the quality of the verb.

4. Adverbs
Adverbs modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence. An adverb conveys such things as how, when, where, why, and for what purpose.
Unlike the predicate adjective, this –ly modifier generally follows an action verb.
He talks strangely.
I speak slowly.
We need to act quickly.
We sang badly.
We speak poorly.

5. Bad and badly Bad is an adjective, so it is used with a linking verb:
I feel bad about missing your graduation.
The food tastes bad.
The child is bad.
Badly is an adverb, so it is used with an action verb:
Tom writes badly.
The chef cooks badly.
The child acts badly.

6. Good and well Good is an adjective: Well is and adverb:
You look good in blue.
Well is and adverb:
He get along well with his co-workers.
Well is also an adjective when it is used to refer to health:
I am not well today.

7. Testing your sentences
He smells bad because he smells badly.
(He has an odor because he has no sense of smell.)
You wouldn’t say “I feel badly” because then you’re saying you are bad at feeling instead of that your emotional state is negative.

8. That’s all, folks!
This lesson is part of the UWF Writing Lab Grammar Mini-Lesson Series
Lessons adapted from Real Good Grammar, Too by Mamie Webb Hixon
To find out more, visit the Writing Lab’s website where you can take a self-scoring quiz corresponding to this lesson