Shirlie writes:
I like your explanation in your column titled "Safe or Safety". I think your idea is clear and easy to understand. I agree with you on the "bizarre" things, which often happen to me when I teach.
I am an English teacher at a middle school. I try my hard to avoid the "bizarre" things but just find it unavoidable. It happens everywhere, in the text book, in everyday test paper, and I often get confused by some multiple-choice questions. For example, one question is like this: You don't look ____. You'd better go to see a doctor. A wonderfully B well C nice D good.
The preferred answer is B (well). So, how can I explain to my students they should choose B but not D?
In my experience, when someone really doesn't feel good, the native speaker likes to say: Are you ok? or Are you alright? or Do you feel good? or in some other ways. Thank you very much for your help.
My comments:
When people say you look good, they mean you look pretty and smart - they are not talking about your physical wellbeing, or the lacks thereof. When they say you don't look well, they mean you look ill (and you'd better go and see a doctor).
If you ask the native speaker why this is so, they'll probably say that it's just the way it is, that they've grown up saying so without having given it much thought one way or the other.
Grammar, you see, is a series of agreements (over how to string words together) put in place to avoid misunderstanding. It's developed through experiment, over time and by trial and error. But grammar rules are not as strict as, say traffic regulations and criminal laws. That's why, if someone misspeaks, no-one will call the police. Language usages are more of a habitual and customary nature (as they are to the native speaker) than one about logic and reason. That's why grammar of one language often appears illogical and irreconcilable to foreigners, who've been used only to the equally peculiar and idiosyncratic tongue of their own.
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