Attention grammar police, can you actually "eat healthy"?
Since eat is a verb, shouldn't it be followed by an adverb, like "healthfully" instead of an adjective?
Here we go again...
People say things and you become used to hearing something like this used incorrectly. However, it is a dominant phrase in society, even though it conflicts with grammatical correctness.
Eat Healthfully? This sounds ridiculous, even though it may be grammatically correct... right?
Yes, right on all counts. Eat is a verb and must be modified by an adverb, therefore healthfully is correct. Or, you could just eat healthy foods and solve all problems. (Not to mention doing something go for your body at the same time.)
A number of adjectives keep the same form when used as an adverb. Not entirely sure why but in some cases I suspect it is because adding an -ly would make an odd word. Like "fast". We don't say "walk fastly". We say "walk fast".
Same thing with words that already end in -ly. "Daily prayer" as an adjective. "Pray daily" as an adverb.
Technically the adverb form of "healthy" is "healthily" but I don't mind using healthy as an adverb for the reasons mentioned. In formal writing I would use the correct form.
Different things sound normal to different people, depending on where you live and what you're used to hearing. For me, "eat healthy" is something that I've heard before, probably in American shows or publications, but grammatically I just feel that it's wrong (as it uses an adjective), and I have an urge to add that "i", to make "healthily". I've never heard the word healthfully before, so it's not an option I would go for. It sounds a bit strange, but again, if you're used to it then it probably sounds normal.
It's very interesting the difference between British and American English here: "Healthfully" would sound ridiculous in the UK. A lot of people do use "Healthy" as an adverb (although, to be honest, a lot of British people don't modify the adjective to an adverb at all) but it's grammatically incorrect and "Healthily" is the correct adverb.
"Walk Fast" is also incorrect over here (although, again, lots of people use it), you should rather say, "Walk quickly."
Thank you all for your answers. I work in an elementary school and our Department of Health encourages the students to "Eat Healthy" on posters and t-shirts. That bothers me every time I see it, since we should be teaching the kids better grammar. However, I think both "healthily" and "healthfully" sound awkward. I'll take greatparenting's advice and tell them to just eat healthy food.
In this sentence, eat is functioning as a linking verb as it is not the act of eating that is refered to, but rather, what is being described is a concept about the nature of the food being eaten.
As a result, an adjective is needed rather than an adverb. A clear example could be the following sentence with a linking verb: Mary smells nice.
by Aya Katz 13 years ago
Do African Grey Parrots Understand What They Are Saying and Use Grammatically Correct Speech?I understand that you have an African Grey parrot who speaks. Does he just repeat words and phrases, or does he say things spontaneously in context? How is his grammar?
by RKHenry 14 years ago
Has anybody read that article in Parenting, school years monthly addition?Any thoughts? My thoughts? Scares the hell out of me. 2009 National Statics for American Tweens-(as per the National Eating Disorders Assoc.):42% of kids first through third grade want to be thinner.81% of...
by anonymoussoul 6 years ago
Hi Hubbers,I'd like some help with passing the Quality Assessment Process. Will you please give feedback on my article Love_Reloaded (must be signed in to view). What can I do to improve? Thanks!
by Stephanie Das 12 years ago
Can you use coupons and still eat healthy?I don't like to buy meat, dairy, or produce that isn't organic, and I try not to eat junk food or packaged foods. Unfortunately, it seems like most coupons are for foods that I don't eat. Is it possible to save money and still eat well?
by whoisbid 12 years ago
Obesity in AmericaDo you think that the food offered in America is causing obesity? If this is the case, then how can you avoid food that everyone eats?
by Aficionada 11 years ago
Why do some people use a singular noun when they start a phrase with "one of your . . . "?They might continue by saying "[one of your] best/worst/favorite/least-favorite/best-loved/most-hated" or something similar. Do you have a grammar theory?
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |