Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Harry, it does not seem quite so clear cut. Yes, in the OED there is no adverb "bad" ("feel bad" falls under the heading of adjective and described as colloquialism). Note, however, that dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster both offer "bad" as an adverb (dictionary.com describe it as informal use).
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I'm not saying that bad
can't be an (informal) adverb, just that it isn't one in this particular case.
Eg, if you say "He ran bad in yesterday's race", that would be an adverbial usage ("bad" used in place of the more correct "badly").
However, saying "he felt bad" is not modifying the verb "feel" (as, for example, "He felt briefly guilty, but it soon passed", is - the word "briefly" is an adverb there), but is describing what is being felt, and is thus a simple direct object of the verb "feel". It's being used as an adjective here, not an adverb.