“I’m Doin’ Good”
Every time I talk with my boss, there’s an exchange something like this:
“Hi Matthew, how are you doing?”
“Good, how are you?”
“I’m doing well!”
There was a time when someone would ask me how I was doing and I would answer simply “well.” That was a few years ago, and I was trying to make my English completely standard. I also tried saying things like “John is taller than he” and “It is I.” Of course, such efforts didn’t last for long. Stilted English made me sound so stuck-up that I dropped it and reverted to most of the patterns I had grown up with.
My problem was that I didn’t know the difference between standard English and prescribed English. To answer “How are you doing” with “good” is standard, whatever prescriptivists may say. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage recognizes that, while “good” is almost always an adjective in writing, it is commonly used as an adverb in speech. There’s no reason to reject a pattern which is ubiquitous in everyday conversation.
That is not to say that Ken is wrong to use the word “well.” We both choose what seems most natural to us at the moment. Saying “good” would probably make Ken more uncomfortable than eating peas with his fingers. Personally, I say “well” when my verb is explicit (e.g. “I’m doing well.”) but “good” when the verb is understood (e.g. “How are you?”—”Good.”). I am pretty sure that my usage strikes a balance between formal and colloquial standard English. Do you agree?
January 18th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Hey Matthew - I found your site through Funny Class Notes and liked this entry. In greeting, I usually avoid using good as an adverb (the normative vernacular described in your post), but never thought that comes across as stilted. The language people choose when the first meet should be, in my opinion, lengthy enough to support the conversation until common ground can be found on which to base further interaction. “I am doing well” is five more syllables than “good” and four more than “I’m good,” making it a preferable greeting. Furthermore, using proper - even if “overly” correct - grammar denotes attention and courtesy. Brady Quinn says “I’m done” after drinking his protein shake, while a more cultured figure might say “Now my workout is finished” or, more accurately, “This beverage assists the muscles as they rebuild after a strenuous and lengthy episode of my workout regimen [SMILE].” That last line was, in case you weren’t ready for it, a poorly conceived joke.
Anyway, that’s two cents from an admitted conversation neophyte.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Hi AMRunner, thanks for commenting. I agree “I’m doing well” sounds perfectly natural, but I’m not sure about “well” as a standalone. You have an extremely interesting point about syllable counts though. It makes me want to stop slacking and write a post—about conversation. Anyway, I hope to see you here again.