I Can Do Well By Doing a Good Job

It was a slow day. I had time to wonder about random things. Like what is the big deal with good versus well. I understand that it is grammatically incorrect to say do good, because well should be used with verbs. People do well, not good. I get that. But why is the phrase “do gooder” and not “do weller.” I mean do weller sounds like crap and I understand why people don’t say it. If you say do weller too fast, it will sound like dweller so that’s fine, but if people can be do gooders, then people can do good. I’m not trying to rewrite the English language, I’m just wondering. I remember to say do well because of an irritating moment when I was in middle school. I asked a teacher “If we do good can we leave early?” and then this other student said, “You mean if we do well.” I smiled and shrugged it off because I knew the student didn’t mean anything by it, but I’ve never forgotten it. I wasn’t in English class so what was the point of correcting me? It bothered me because it wasn’t the teacher who corrected me. Not only was my error not egregious by any means, but it was also a common mistake and not worthy of being corrected. Fortunately, I learned my lesson and I usually use “good” and “well” appropriately. I won’t lie and say I don’t occasionally misuse the words, but it doesn’t bother me when I do, and I never had anyone correct me before that middle school incident or after, which leads me to believe that most people don’t care whether you say good or well because they know damn well what you mean. I’m not sure why that memory crossed my mind today, but it did.

Status: It’s all good.