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I found this sentence "I didn't know him ......., but I was still upset when he died" so I have to choose between these two answer:

A. too well
B. good enough

According with the results of the test it says that the correct answer is "too well" but I don't understand very well the rule in this specific sentence. Can someone please help me?

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  • Speaking English well doesn't necessarily make you a good speaker.
    – user3395
    Commented May 12, 2016 at 1:39
  • This one was hard for me, too because I was hearing "good" being used in conversations as an adverb. It appears to be, when used as an adverb, "good" is informal or non-standard.
    – Mikiko
    Commented May 12, 2016 at 1:42
  • Note that (unrelated to your sentence) “good/well enough” and “too good” are common.
    – user3395
    Commented May 12, 2016 at 2:07
  • I thought also I mean I'm not sure that we use "enough" to express like a certain kind of negation so that's why I'm confused in here.
    – Gaby Paz
    Commented May 12, 2016 at 2:12
  • You should ask a different question that addresses that specific problem.
    – user3395
    Commented May 12, 2016 at 10:48

2 Answers 2

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Well is the "adverb form" of good, and good is an adjective. People in live speech mix these up all the time, though.

Adjectives can follow the verb to be, to feel, to seem, and a few other verbs, because these types of verbs take complements.

For example, you can say "I am hot" or "I feel sick." In these situations you can use good. You can also use well (e.g. "I am not well.") since a meaning of well when it is used as an adjective is "not sick."

Well as an adjective is not often used outside of a verb's complement. For example, it would be far more usual to say "I'm about the release all the patients that are well" than "I'm about to release all the well patients."

This contrived example might help illustrate also:

A: Did you test all the tools?

B: I did, each one is good. (You cannot say well here because tools are not a thing that get sick)

A: Well, give me one of those good tools. I need one. (Etc.)

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In your example, well is used to describe how much you knew the deceased.

I didn't know him too well
I didn't know him very well

In your question, you also write

I don't understand very good the rule...

when it should be

I don't understand very well the rule...

since you are talking about your "understanding".

Having a good understanding of something, is to understand it well.

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