"I feel well" and "I feel good" these both sentences are used occasionally, but what is difference between them. I mean when someone ask to a patient "How are you feeling now" and he replies "I feel well" or "I feel good" then the person who is asking this question might be confused. I mean in which context patient is informing. Thanks...
1 Answer
You know that after "feel" we need to use adjectives, not adverbs, don't you? For example, I feel ill, cheerful, bad, etc.
So, if well is an adjective, then it means healthy: I feel well = My health is good.
And if you feel good, then you feel happy ("I feel good! And I feel nice, like sugar and spice!" - from James Brown's "I feel good").
However, good can also mean healthy depending on the context:
I don't feel very good. I need to lie down.
In this case good and well are interchangeable.
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2Some prescriptivists would argue that "I feel good" would mean that the speaker does not feel evil at the moment. Nov 9, 2018 at 12:58
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1As a Briton, when I say "How are you?" to an American, and he/she says "I'm good", I want to say "I wasn't enquiring about your moral status". Nov 9, 2018 at 14:13
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I should perhaps modify my comment to read "to an American, or a British millennial". Nov 9, 2018 at 21:10