3 ms·
I think "Do you speak good English?" is correct given that the adjective "good" indicates the quality of his English.
by helveticaman 18y ago
I think "Do you speak good English?" is correct given that the adjective "good" indicates the quality of his English.
- mcxx 18y agoYup, this is what I had in mind.
- albertsun 18y agoSince I'm not a prescriptivist, I'll point out that there's a subtle difference of meaning between "speak good English" and "speak English well", and the meaning here is better reflected by the second phrase. Consider the similar phrase, "Did you eat good pie", versus "Did you eat pie well". In the pie case the former is correct because you're referring to the quality of the pie. In the case at hand, we're talking about the quality of the speaking.
- cperciva 18y agoYour example isn't quite the same, since the speaking is what creates the English. A better analogy would be "Do you bake good pies" vs. "Do you bake pies well" -- which don't mean quite the same thing, but they're pretty close.