Is your day going good or well? And is it, I hope you’re ‘well’ or ‘good’? These words are some of the most common words to appear in email and business correspondences. Let’s acknowledge the difference.
How to use good vs. well
Compare how good and well appear in these sentences:
- I hope your day is going well.
- I hope it’s been a good day.
The first sentence uses ‘well’ to modify ‘is going’, which are verbs or verb forms. Since ‘well’ is modifying a verb, this classifies it as an adverb, because adverbs modify verbs.
Conversely, ‘good’ is describing the ‘day’; i.e., a noun, making it an adjective, since adjectives describe nouns. In other words, we use ‘well’ to describe actions or states, and ‘good’ to describe people, places or things.
- Good is a noun that refers to “the amount of confidence and enthusiasm, etc. that a person or a group has at a particular time”.
- Well is mostly an adjective that describes being “connected with principles of right and wrong behaviour”. As a noun, morals refers to “standards or principles of good behaviour”
“Good” / “well”, used in sentences
| Examples: “good”, used in sentences |
|---|
| The piano was in good condition. Your work is just not good enough. The results were pretty good. |
| Examples: “well”, used in sentences |
|---|
| They played well in the tournament. The team work well together. The kids all behaved well. The conference was very well organized. |
Good, synonyms
- acceptable
- excellent
- exceptional
- favorable
- great
- marvellous
- positive
- satisfactory
- satisfying
- superb
- valuable
- wonderful
Well, synonyms
- adequately
- easily
- far
- freely
- fully
- properly
- quite
- right
- smoothly
Word origin (of good/well)
Old English gōd (with a long “o”) “excellent, fine; valuable; desirable, favorable, beneficial; full, entire, complete;” of abstractions, actions, etc., “beneficial, effective; righteous, pious;” of persons or souls, “righteous, pious, virtuous;” probably originally “having the right or desirable quality,” from Proto-Germanic *gōda- “fitting, suitable”.
“in a satisfactory manner,” Old English wel “abundantly, very, very much; indeed, to be sure; with good reason; nearly, for the most part,” from Proto-Germanic *wel-…from PIE root.
Read about other misused words
Sources
- Oxford Learner’s Dictionary on “good” and “well”. Accessed 23 March, 2024.
- Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of well.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/well. Accessed 23 March, 2024.
