<p>Im getting a bit confused, according to my book, to check if a verb is active or linking you should just replace the verb " to be " with the original verb. If the meaning is lost, its an active verb.</p>
<p>According to this, I could say:</p>
<p>I feel strangely
I feel badly
I feel furiously</p>
<p>if i replace " feel " it would read:
I am strangely
I am badly
I am furiously</p>
<p>none make sense so according to my books rule the verb would be active and the , strangely, badly and furiously would be adverbs, but that doesnt make sense in the sentences above, does it? i thought it was incorrect to say " i feel furiously" ?</p>
<p>this rule seems to be wrong? or am i missing something?</p>
The meanings of the first three sentences are lost, so the feel functions as an active verb. What’s the confusion?
Also, I’ve never heard the “replace it with to be” technique because I’ve never seen one of those workbooks, but to me, it is but a crude and fallible method.</p>
<p>To be is not the only linking verb; to feel can be replaced by to be with acceptability, but words like to grow or to remain cannot be substituted by to be as easily. I don’t know how the workbook words it exactly but if you replace to grow and to remain in the following sentences, the meanings are lost, though not to absurdity or an adverb-adjective mis-selection.</p>
<p>I grow uneasy. (going from bonhomie to uneasiness–I am uneasy would just be descriptive of the subject’s uneasiness at one instant)</p>
<p>The redoubt remains strong (presumably, it has suffered some blow (or time), was once strong and is still strong. is strong loses all that meaning)</p>
<p>So I think the workbook really means adverb-adjective mis-selection as “losing meaning.”</p>
<p>loco10, the sentences you are testing have to be correct, first, before you can check for active vs. linking by using a form of “to be.”</p>
<p>The correct forms of all of these are:
I feel strange.
I feel bad.
I feel furious.</p>
<p>Then you can use “am,” and they all work out adequately (although there are some shifts in the meaning).</p>
<p>This is a well-known SAT question category, that seems like a trick category to many people.</p>
<p>There is a distinction between “feel bad” and “feel badly.” Both could be used, depending on context. You feel bad if you are ill, or if you regret having done something. You feel badly if you are unable to distinguish velvet from sandpaper. In the first instance, “feel” is used in effect as a linking verb, to describe your sensations/emotions. In the second instance, it is used as an active verb, to describe how you are sensing things that you touch. This accounts for the adjective/adverb difference.</p>
<p>“Smell” is another word where the same situation arises.</p>