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What's the difference between "That is not good" and "That is not well"? In what context should each expression be used or does it not make any difference?
Example:
That's not good. He should do the right thing.
and
That's not well. He should do the right thing.
These are the differences:
"That's not good"- correct
"That's not well" - weird
Normally and generally, the word "good" is used to be an adjective (describes nouns) while the the word "well" is to be an adverb (describes verbs).
For example:
I saw (verb) it well. (rather than "I saw it good").
It's a good thing (noun). (rather than "It's a well thing").
But when you are talking about "well" in the meaning of healthy then there is twist and it also describes a noun. For example: "She is well" (she is healthy) or "She is not well" (she is not healthy).
'That's not good.' is a commonly used phrase in English and is correctly used as in your example. It usually used as a statement to show that in the judgment of the speaker some situation or event is bad or sub-optimal. It can also be used as a humorous understatement if the event is really bad.
'That's not well.' is not a commonly used phrase. Although this is not really bad English, it would be more correct to use the statement 'That's not good.' in its place instead.
