Which sounds best and why?

[altamira16]

I tutor a student in English.

Today, she wrote, "My teacher is good teaching me." I changed it to "My teacher is good at teaching me." I did not have a very good reason for why I did this. Which do you think is better? Why?

Comments

[alexseanchai]

The second, because it doesn't stumble over the missing preposition.

[syntheid]

The first quote is attempting to use 'good' as an adverb, but it's an adjective, so you can't 'good teach' something because an adjective can't modify a verb. (ie the root sentence in the original is "My teacher is teaching me" and "good" is trying to modify "teaching" in that sentence as in that is how the teacher is teaching.)

When you say 'good at [a thing]' it's being used as a noun with the extension (this isn't the real term but I don't remember this term anymore) "at [a thing]". (ie the root sentence in the second is more like "My teacher is good" and what is the teacher good at, they're good "at teaching me")

If you want to keep the root sentence "My teacher is teaching me" then you can use "well" which is the accepted adverbial form for "good" so: "My teacher is teaching me well." Or if you wanted to keep the word order you need to use an adverb that can sit in the same place (often one of the -ly adverbs) like: "My teacher is excellently teaching me."

[altamira16]

This is close to what I did. I discussed adjectives and adverbs and how she was trying to modify the verb teaching with "good," but "good" is an adjective and cannot modify the verb.

I was stumped on how to explain the "good at [a thing]" phrasing.

[sollers]

Yes, "well" is the corresponding adverb and should follow the verb - "she is teaching me well"

[syntheid]

I remembered the term, ahah, it's a prepositional phrase being used as an adjunct, if that helps, too.