Thank you, Heather! I'm good! I always say I'm good, but I can get wobbly when confronted with someone who immediately answers, "I'm well!" I went to a big land grant college in the Midwest and hell, maybe I missed something.

I think a grouchy work blog is a good idea.

makes sense to me. on the other hand, i'm doing purty well thnx.

Well, well, well, who knew there could be such passion for adjectives and linking verbs. I guess I better watch what I say next time you ask "how you doin,?" Grouch on...

You & Churchill.....someone once called him down for splitting an infinitive and he replied "That, madam, is logic up with which I will not put."

I use "well." My England-raised girlfriend of many years ago and her Oxford-educated mum influenced me, and it's stuck. Plus, if I want to sound like Fred Mertz, I can just add an "S" and be "swell." I love the retro of that.

Get down with your bad self, Heather. Grouchy about grammar, usage and language in this age of texting and emoticons is a good thing. We who make our living writing need to get all Steve Seagal on the asses of folks who still can't use "it's" properly. That's the one that makes me want to eat bleach.

Go on and pet your peeve. Just not in public.

"...a herd of people who are paranoid that they're stupid."

I believe these are the same people who think saying "she went to the movies with my friends and I" makes them sound smarter than "... my friends and me." Nothing like being snooty AND wrong.

I say, "I'm doin' well."

It's not the greatest grammar, but it's better than "I'm well" I have to say.

I am all for grouchy workblogs, and game too for discussing irritating bastardizations whenever... but, well, how does anyone really take issue with another's pet peeve? It's your own, and it's just a peeve, but I hope you feel better about it someday soon. Then, if anyone asks how you are, you may respond in good conscience, "I'm well, and you?"

Now, I used to have an issue with this guy who, whenever you asked how he was, always said (con gusto): "if I was any better I'd be twins!"

State of being: good. State of doing (or feeling): well. Little Prince my eye. There are plenty of us naive little word witches who expect--against all reason--that people ought to observe proper grammar for the simple reason that it gives us pleasure to hear/read things said/written well. Which, you understand, doesn't mean that I'm giving Safire (and his ilk) any props here; I just know what it feels like someone uses "very unique" grammar.

Hi Heather,

Not to pick at nits, but rules change and "everyone getting more and more stupid and bastardizing the language" is why we're not speaking Anglo-Saxon anymore.

Although it might be nice if we all still sounded like we walked out of Shakespeare - just leave the rapiers and daggers at home, though.

Just for he record, I never say "well" or "good."

I say "fine," "great," "groovy," or "swell," depending on my mood, and the person who asked me.

Okay, so we don't like "I'm well."

My question is this. What do you do with people who assume that just because you ask them "how are you" means that you want to hear about all their drama and woe is me tales.

Just say "fine" and move along, please!

Did your readers get your point? Well is an adverb. It describes verbs. As I understand it, if you are feeling well, its because your finger tips are especially sensitive. If you want to insist that YOU are "well" add an article and be prepared to provide buckets of cool clear water. OR consider it a quaint colloquialism of the grammatically challenged, ego inflated, show-offy set and the poor saps who pick up linguistic cues from them. (all of us at times)

"well" can be an adjective or an adverb. It's not necessarily pretentious. Where I come from it means I'm well as opposed to unwell. Often people ask each other "are you well?" instead of "how are you?" and the answer to either question is "I'm well". If you say "I'm good" it sounds like you're boasting.

Well is a bit snooty. I prefer okay, fine, or supercalifragilisticespialidocious myself, though the latter occurs with less frequency as I age, and only when I am in rare form, which is to say infrequently.

My answer is"fine, thank you", and a couple years ago I decided to always add "and how are you?". You'd be amazed how surprised and pleased a cashier in a checkout line or anyone waiting on you is to be asked back. It always feel like I'm adding a little and not just taking....

Ahh, I'm so glad someone else is bothered by the unsplit infinitive in Ferdinand the Bull! I love reading that book to my (just-turned-6-year-old) son and I nearly always move the "just" so the words sound right to my ears.

When someone asks how you're doing, it's always fun to ask, "do you really want to know?" Their faces perk in an uncomfortable way as they make the split-second decision between admitting that they truly don't care and it's just an annoying formality, and opening up the hellish gates of too much information... It is also fun to skip the good/well all together and launch straight into complaints about fictional diseases like Chris Adrian's, "Feline Leukemic indecisiveness."

Heather, if you cross the Atlantic you will find that most English-speakers reply "well" (or "very well, thank you!" as we were drilled to say as children) to the question "How are you?" .
Many of the same English-speakers - myself included - would eat their etiquette books before replying with "good".

Greetings and responses should always cause a smile.....
"I'm OK" - "I'm fine" - "I'm good" etc have all slipped into my plastic bag full of banal cliches.

"Hi - How are you?"
"I'm a bundle of living joy!"

"Hi - How are you?"
"I'm all warm and cuddly!"

both 100% smile getters.......both leave the greeting moment smiling....

exit - smilin'

Heather, thanks for this. As an English major who preferred drinking to going to class, I appreciate your grouchiness. When in doubt, here's a fall back (for those especially grouchy days):

Thom: Hi Heather, how are you?

Heather: None of your fuckin' business. Now get outta my face before I call the cops.

Reminds me of "stay well" which sounds like it could be easily substituted with "don't die," pointless and pretentious. As for ME, I always used to say "fine, how are you" and now I say "fabulous as usual," don't know why.

i LOVE to say, "never been better!" stole it from someone who used to say that. i love the tone of it. and i like to think that it makes a day better. and i like to think that on some level, its true.

Some of these posts, particularly the original one, seem to be based on the false premise that following rules of grammar and using conversational English are somehow mutually exclusive activities. When properly used, English is an incredibly rich language which can be adapted to a wide range of circumstances without violating its basic rules.

You can dress or decorate a room formally or informally. Or you can live in a sty in dirty clothes. Conversational, or informal, English needn’t be foul. Tim, Jonathan, Blake, and Jean all understand this. Blogging can certainly be informal; it needn’t be sloppy.

Neither “good” nor “well” is an ideal choice as an answer to the subject question, but it’s a matter not of grammar but of vocabulary. “Well” is certainly better than “good,” but has an unduly medical connotation. “Good” is becoming increasingly common, but has too strong a connection with morality. “I’m fine, thank you, and you?” is my first choice, and unless the person I’m addressing is a film buff, I shamelessly steal from Katherine Hepburn and add, “if you don’t ask for details.”

Ferdinand would say “bull” to the idea that the original text was a stuffy effort not to split an infinitive. The author simply placed the adverb, “just” next to the other adverb, “quietly” it modifies for emphasis.

There’s an air of redundancy in the notion of a “banal cliché,” and I was curious as to where there was any question about “linking verbs.”

I counted no fewer than nine English errors in one three-line post, which of course included the “its” versus “it’s” mistake, which quite rightly drives Tim crazy. This is not being informal or conversational; it’s dissin’ the lingo we dig.

yeah, I see that damn "it's" all over OS when the blogger means "its." What's up with that? I don't put the good/well thing in the category of "correct but pretentious sounding," like using "whom" correctly can do. I always think it's wrong to use the adverb well after a linking verb. Nor do I put it in the category of the "incorrect but pretentious category" like "Give the book to Sheryl and I" can do. Those people think you're trash for saying "Sheryl and me" even though of course you're right. Not that it's really OK, by the way, to use the second person pronoun the way I just did, either. Did anything I just said make any sense? (I'm on Week 6 of teaching low-ability fifth graders the distinction between regular and irregular plurals for reasons relating to making them possessive. SIX WEEKS. They don't get it.)

Thanks Heather. I feel similarly about this one. Maybe it's (used correctly) my working class background, or my appreciation for the unpretentious, but "I'm well" rings stuffy in my ears. And phoney. And besides, I can't seem to make it sound natural when I try to say it, so I want to dismiss it.

Sometimes I say, "Would you like a social response or a real one?" Some of my friends actually say, "Just a social one." and I respond, "I'm fine thanks. How are you?"

I'm not a morning person, so it's particularly difficult when the question comes befoer 10:00 a.m.

I wont get at you for grammatical errors (I'm dyslexic anyway so how would I know?) but I will say I think everyone has a natural voice. Their accent, annuciation, intonations are all unique and sure we try to change that a lot of the time to what we think is 'cool' or (as you say) 'intellegent'.
As to the line in 'Ferdinand the Bull' I think 'sit just quietly' sounds better than 'just sit quietly'. Ever thought the auther did it on purpose? Thats how it was publish so it's probably how it was wanted to be, you need to respect that.
Full of passion though, which is always nice and I do sympathise- we all have our 'pet peeves'.

But what if you ARE well? As in healthy? And have a chronic illness which you know people are asking about?

To quote the linked bit: But when you say, “I am well,” you're using well as a predicate adjective. That's fine, but most sources say well is reserved to mean “healthy” when it's used in this way (1, 3, 4). So if you are recovering from a long illness and someone is inquiring about your health, it's appropriate to say, “I am well,” but if you're just describing yourself on a generally good day and nobody's asking specifically about your health, a more appropriate response is, “I am good.”

Anyway, I generally say, "Fine," when asked by people who don't know me, and to my ear "good" sounds hickish. You're not good - you're somewhere between wicked and tolerable at best. You may be FEELING good, but you are, factually, not good.

This subject and the thread has all the relevance and impact of rearraging deck chairs on the Titanic.

I have to agree with John, " Not to pick at nits, but rules change and "everyone getting more and more stupid and bastardizing the language" is why we're not speaking Anglo-Saxon anymore."

I like our bastardized version of that uptight language. In addition, I understand that English as it exists over there is dead--static. At least we're putting some life back in the old beast. Let those prickly pears across the pond bear the burden of conservation--it's not in our blood.