“I love Owen, and I felt bad that he had to deal with all the outside bulls--.” - Ben Stiller, about friend Owen Wilson’s attempted suicide, in Playboy
Ben has correctly used the adjective “bad” after the linking verb “felt.” A common error is the use of the adverb “badly” with a form of the linking verb “feel.” A linking verb connects a subject with either an adjective (the predicate adjective) or a noun (the predicate noun). Adverbs describe action verbs, so using the adverb “badly” with “feel” changes the meaning of the verb: “I feel badly” means that I am having a hard time touching things.
Well done, Ben!
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