My in-laws are from the Caribbean, and they use phrases such as: "The soup is well good." "She's a well good woman."
By 'well', they mean 'very', 'really', or even 'extremely'. At least that is my interpretation from context. It usually seems to be used in a positive sense. That is, I have not heard anyone say, "He's a well bad man" but perhaps they are just positive people!
Are these sentences grammatically correct? For those tempted to just blurt out, "No, they sound wrong", please consider the following sentences which I hear around my home town (San Diego) all the time.
"Your shot was well long of the hole." "He fell well short of his goals." "She's a well fed woman."
What part of speech is "well" in the previous five sentences? I think in the first one at least it's an adjective modifying the noun "good". Usually, 'well' is an adverb as in: "He did well on the test".
Thanks, Dave