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ESL forum > Grammar and Linguistics > Bad or badly?    

Bad or badly?



joserik
Spain

Bad or badly?
 
Hello, everybody!
Could you help me, please? Is it correct to say "he behaves bad" or "he behaves badly"? Could you justify your answers? Thanks in advance!!

17 Apr 2010      





ilango_eng
India

Hi

he behaves badly is correct because the verb "behaves" is qualified by the adverb "Badly" but not  by an adjective "bad". Adjectives do not qualify a verb they only say something about a noun or a pronoun

ilango

17 Apr 2010     



banska bystrica
Slovakia

Hello joserik,

I would say "he behaves badly", because "badly" is an adverb... "How does he behave?" "Badly" is the answer. If you want to use and adjective, you could say "He is badly-behaved" or "His behaviour is bad", but I would really prefer the first option, sounds more natural to me.

Bye

17 Apr 2010     



aliciapc
Uruguay

I agree with both.

17 Apr 2010     



donz-54
Indonesia

I think it �s supposed to be "he behaves badly" since u are using an adverb. like we all know that an adverb modifies a verb. here u modify behave.
 
bad is an adjective. it modifies a noun. for example: he showed a bad behaviour. here you modifies behaviour which is bad.
 
really hope that it helps.
best regards,
donny

17 Apr 2010     



joserik
Spain

Thanks so much to all of you.
Things are much clearer now.
Hugs!

17 Apr 2010     



portugueseteacher
Portugal

Badly is the good answer!Hugs!

17 Apr 2010     



Fabiola R
Argentina


I totally agree with donz-54 and banska bystrica

Their answers are very well explained and clear..


Faby!

17 Apr 2010     



libertybelle
United States

He behaves badly is the correct answer because badly is an adverb and describes the verb behave.

17 Apr 2010