Which is correct felt bad or felt badly

The word bad is an adjective and should be used to modify nouns and pronouns. Badly, like most words ending in -ly, is an adverb and is used to modify verbs. The thing that trips most people up is that linking verbs such as to be and to feel take adjectives rather than adverbs.

The word bad is an adjective that modifies nouns and pronouns: She was in a bad accident. The word badly is an adverb that conveys the manner or degree of a verb’s action: She was hurt badly in the accident.

The failure reflects badly on the administration.She wanted the job badly.I’m badly in need of a vacation.His fingers were badly frozen.

Bad or Badly

Bad is an adjective used with linking verbs such as feel, seem, be, look, etc. Incorrect: I feel badly that he is not taking part in the game. Correct: I feel bad that he is not taking part in the game. Badly is an adverb used to modify action verbs.

Definition of feel bad

: feel regret over something I feel bad about what happened.

To feel badly implies that your sense of touch is not right. When you are referring to a sense of touch, then badly is used as an adverb describing the verb to feel or touch. The correct way to say the sentence is, “I feel bad for him because he didn’t make the cut.”

The verb, want, is being modified, so you need an adverb (“badly”). The reason you hear “I want it so bad” is just because a lot of people often use adjectives where they should use adverbs.