Why correct?

[Student33]

Why is it correct to say :
He hadn't been a well man for years.
I mean the adjective (well) cannot be used before nouns when it means healthy.

[Marius Hancu]

> I mean the adjective (well) cannot be used before nouns when it means healthy.

Where did you get this one from? There thousands of examples in published books:

1,088 on "a well man"
http://books.google.com/books?q=%22a+well+man%22+&btnG=Search+Books

[Student33]

I wish the google way was a practical way of solving the many grammatical issues I encounter, my dear friend. Type whatever you want in the search box and millions of similar sentences appear; are they all grammaticaaly correct?? I just wanted grammatical explanation

[Marius Hancu]

The grammatical explanation is that "well" is also an adjective which of course can precede as a pre-modifier a noun in a noun phrase.


----------
well

Function: adjective

5 a : being in health : sound in body and mind : free of or recovered from sickness, infirmity, disease, or ailment : HEALTHY (http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged?book=Third&va=healthy) <a well man> <he looks well> b

Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged.
----------

And this dictionary page is showing <a well man>.

So you should have looked at those examples from published books to convince yourself this is a valid construction:
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Living Life to Live It Longer‎ - Page 132 (http://books.google.com/books?id=Ro2XwymfxU8C&pg=RA1-PA132&dq=%22a+well+man%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1970&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES)by Herbert M. Shelton - Health & Fitness (http://books.google.com/books?q=+subject:%22Health+%26+Fitness%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1970&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES) - 1996 - 139 pages

Those agents that are known to lower the vital force of a well man, are known to
make a well man sick, are chosen to restore the sick man to health; ...
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[Student33]

The well boy is playing.
using well here is incorrect
I knew that there is an exceptional case with man but why???

[Marius Hancu]

No, that is not valid again, you can see the combination:
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Proceedings of the ... Conference of Governors of the States of the Union‎ (http://books.google.com/books?id=vUwnAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22the+well+boy%22&lr=)

Nature (http://books.google.com/books?q=+subject:%22Nature%22&lr=) - 1920
Page 11
... and is intended to develop him so as to give him an opportunity equal to
that of the well boy and the well girl for the development of his education. ...
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The point is that "well" in this application ("healthy," adjective) is a bit old-fashioned, if not archaic.

[MrPedantic]

It may be worth noting that the phrase "a well man" has a mildly humorous air; cf. the common phrase:

1. I'm not a well man.

by which the speaker intimates a deprecatory attitude towards his own state of health.

MrP

[OddThomas]

It may appear gruff to bluntly rebut your claim that well is not an adjective that means healthy, yet well is in fact the very adjective we use to mean exactly that. For instance, my doctor's office has one waiting room for well patients and a second one for sick patients.

Your observation that Google is not a trustworthy arbiter of grammar and usage is an excellent one. One must use judgment, reason, and some intuition to ensure both a useful Google search and a proper interpretation of the ensuing search results.

[Pete]

Do note that Marius suggested searching Google books, not the general search of the whole Web. He has often commented that published books have passed through an editing process, so you have a greater likelihood of seeing standard, grammatically correct English there. You still must look at the complete uses and their contexts before simply looking at a count, but in many cases such a search can convince you that a given use is well accepted. (Once before I pointed out that in Google books you get many hits on "ain't got no", but most of the references that I checked were in fictional dialogue where the author's intention clearly was to show that the speaker lacked education.)

About the use of "well" as an attributive adjective (i.e. preceding the noun that it modifies instead of being used as a predicate adjective). I've certainly heard that use, but I think usually in contrast to an alternative. For example, I've seen several pediatricians' offices that have waiting rooms labeled "Sick Children" and "Well Children". And as another example, it certainly would sound natural to say, "Not only is a well employee more productive than a sick one, but the well person will not spread disease to co-workers.

I agree that there are times where "well" would not sound natrual when used attributively. We would say,
- Tommy is well, so he returned to school.
Not,
- Well Tommy returned to school.

[Bridget]

One word I hate..."wellness". Yuk! A Stateside invention, I think.

[Bridget]

but most of the references that I checked were in fictional dialogue where the author's intention clearly was to show that the speaker lacked education.)

And not just of another dialect? :eek:

[Bridget]

It may be worth noting that the phrase "a well man" has a mildly humorous air; cf. the common phrase:

1. I'm not a well man.

by which the speaker intimates a deprecatory attitude towards his own state of health.

MrP

Mildy humorous here?

"See in the latter part of my, my father's time he wasn't a well man , was he? No. He used to, what they call a haemophilia, bleeds from the nose a lot."

Suffolk Sound Archive: interview for the Museum of East Anglian Life (Leisure).

"As soon as he was out of uniform, Connor applied to take over the management of the public-house from his parents --; Mam and Da were getting on in years, and Da wasn't a well man --; but the Brewery were not prepared to lease the pub to a bachelor."

Flood water. Ling, Peter. London: Headline Book Pub. plc, 1993.

"Ben Jonson was now the playwright for the court of King James. The King was paying him some money every year, and Ben wanted to give a party for his friends. It was a good party, I heard. But Will caught a fever and then rode home through the cold spring rain. When he got back to New Place, he was not a well man . He died on the 23rd of April, in the year 1616."

The life and times of William Shakespeare: Oxford Bookworms edition. Bassett, Jennifer. Oxford: OUP, 1993.

'"I should not wish her to come yet. Nor that my father be made unduly anxious on my account." She looked to Louisa again. "My father is not at all a well man . Indeed, I had the greatest reservations about leaving him."'

The chymical wedding. Clarke, Lindsay. London: Jonathan Cape, 1989.

[MrPedantic]

Mildy humorous here?



Curiously, yes; inadvertently, perhaps.

MrP

[Bridget]

Curiously, yes; inadvertently, perhaps.

MrP

Or not at all.

[MrPedantic]

What about this:

1. I'm not a well man, doctor.

Deadly serious?

MrP

[Bridget]

What about this:

1. I'm not a well man, doctor.

Deadly serious?

MrP

Possibly. Don't you think so?

[MrPedantic]

If so, it would fall into the "inadvertently humorous" category:

Curiously, yes; inadvertently, perhaps.



MrP

[Bridget]

Your sense of "humour" may be your own.