On A Lighter Note ...

You Done Well.

We have had an argument within the family for some time now on whether it is proper English to say 'Did Well' or 'Did Good' as in little Frankie did well on his exam rather than little Frankie did good on his exam.

Our Discussions have gone something like this.

(me) How did you do in your presentation at work today Anne?

(Anne) I think I did Well.

You mean you were feeling healthy when you gave it?

No, I mean it went okay.

So you did good?

No I did well !

There you go bringing health back into the argument.

What has my health got to do with how I did?

I agree.

You agree what?

That health has no place in how you did unless of course your health was somehow involved in how you did. For instance Anne, you might have said 'I could have done better but a migraine negatively affected my presentation'.

So how did your day go Galagher?

It went good.

As opposed to evil?

I suppose one could say that - but in my mind good is opposite to bad - as in the good, bad and the ugly.

I could say something about Ugly but I will let it pass.

A few things come to my mind as well in that regard.

Okay - in all reality you have to admit using the word 'well' sounds much better than using the word 'good'.

No I don't - in fact using the word 'well' sounds pretentious to me when what you are really trying to say is whether you did good or did bad. You are either well or not well and you either did good or you did not.

You are simply just wrong.

So I looked it up and found that we were both wrong and both correct. Correct in the sense that the words 'good' and 'well' can be used interchangeably in accepted English. And wrong in the sense that the best word to use in such circumstances is the word Fine - as in how did you do in your presentation / how did your day go?

'It went fine"

Who'd a thunk.

As I see it...

'Galagher'