Hello English learners!
Today, I am going to discuss the difference between bad and badly.
Bad is most often used as an adjective. An adjective describes a noun.
The word bad means that something is the opposite of good or it is poor or faulty.
Here are some examples:
- That fruit was bad.
- Her child is bad.
- Too much Nutella is bad for your health.
Now, the word bad may also be used as an adverb, it has the same meaning as badly.
However, this can only be used in informal situations.
For example:
- She wanted the shoes bad enough to make a deal with the devil.
Bad can also be used as a noun.
Remember that a noun is a person, place or thing.
When bad is a noun, it means a bad condition or evil people.
For example:
- My father is sick again. He health seemed to go from bad to worse.
- The bad are always causing trouble in my town.
The word badly is an adverb.
Most of the time, the letters -ly indicate that the word is an adverb.
An adverb is a word that modifies or describes a verb or an adjective. To help you remember the job of an adverb, think that is ADDS to the verb.
The word badly means in an un-liked way or unfavorably. It can also mean very.
Here are some examples:
- This school functions badly.
- During the meeting, his boss spoke badly of him.
- He badly needs English lessons.
The word badly can also be used as an adjective.
In this case, badly means either sick (not in good health) or sorry (I am sorry).
For example:
- After he broke the lamp, the child felt badly about the situation. (He was sorry that he broke the lamp).
- When she ate the seafood, she felt badly. (She was sick after eating the seafood).
Great work! Did you know what we have other useful posts on this website. Check them out to improve your English even more!
Try out your own sentence using bad verses badly in the comments below.
