Bad Soup Badly Done

Do I feel bad or badly? Most people say they feel badly. I even heard Oprah say she felt badly. But I thought that wasn't correct.

It's okay to say you feel badly if, let's say, your fingers are all numb from the cold and you try without success to feel a relief map or read Braille. Then you can say you, or your numb fingers, feel badly, and you'd be correct.

In fact, "bad" is an adjective that modifies nouns and pronouns. It should be used with linking verbs such as feel, taste, all forms of be, smell, look. When it's used with linking verbs, it functions as a predicate adjective.

The soup tastes bad.

It smells bad, too.

I feel bad for you.

"Badly" is an adverb and modifies verbs.

The soup was badly made.

The bad smell comes from badly cooked soup.

It was very badly done, indeed.