Is "She played good" a grammatically correct sentence?

Question

As far as I understand, "good" is an adjective and "well" an adverb. Therefore,

She played good.

is incorrect and should instead be

She played well.

However, I am a tennis fan and I watch a lot of player interviews and press conferences. I have noticed more and more that some American English native speakers use the sentence

She/He played good.

when describing how their opponent played during their match.

Is this a grammatical mistake, or is it some kind of exception to the rule above which I am not aware of? The closest thing I could find is the "linking verbs" exception where it is okay to use "good" as an adverb, as in:

It tastes good.

However as far as I know this doesn't apply to the verb "play".

Example of native speaker using

She played really good.

Answer 1

It is not a grammatical error, it's just colloquial language. You have noticed correctly that this occurs in AmE. OED labels it so:

Now chiefly North American colloquial. (c. 1275)

‘What kind of a piece is that in that case?’ ‘A short rifle.’ ‘Will she shoot good?’ ‘Yes.’ (F. L. Olmsted, Journey through Texas ii. 59, 1857).

DailyWritings explains that

Both words [well and good] can function adverbially, but the use of good as an outright adverb declined in British English in the seventeenth century. It resurfaced in the nineteenth century as an Americanism, as noted in Bartlett’s American Dictionary (1859):

English travellers have repeatedly noticed the adverbial use of this word [good].
‘He cannot read good.’
‘It does not shoot good.’

---

About its usage in sport, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (pp. 480-481) says:

He treats me good expresses more appreciation than He treats me well, and She scolded him, but good can hardly be expressed with well at all. —Bolinger 1980

The justice of Bolinger’s observation is nowhere better illustrated than in the world of American professional sports, where good is the emotionally charged adverb of choice.
Our evidence shows that adverbial good is common in the speech of the less educated, but is also known and used by the better educated. It is almost de rigueur in professional sports. Bernstein 1977 reports that the adverb as used in sports grates on Edwin Newman (1974). But it does not grate on Reggie Jackson or Tony Armas or Billie Jean King, the ones who know the lingo.
And one should not assume that well is avoided out of ignorance—a professional basketball coach interviewed on television after a game began by saying that the team played good but in mentioning the contributing factors said that they shot well and they rebounded well. The nuances here are plain to sports fans but are overlooked by usage writers.

As the quotations above suggest, adverbial good is still primarily a speech form. Our evidence is mostly from reported or fictional speech, letters, and similar breezy and familiar contexts. It is not likely to be needed in a book review or a doctoral dissertation.

The bottom line is that in formal contexts some will cringe at the adverbial usage of good, whereas in informal contexts it is perfectly fine.

Note that when used with linking verbs good is an adjective (Predicate Complement, describing the Subject). (See Dictionary.com's Well vs. Good and M-W's Good vs. Well: Usage Guide)

Answer 2

"Good" can be used as an adverb, although some people would disagree with this assertion. See Merriam-Webster for more information:

good _{3 of 3 adverb}

1. : well

he showed me how good I was doing—
Herbert Gold

Good vs. Well: Usage Guide

Adverbial good has been under attack from the schoolroom since the 19th century. Insistence on well rather than good has resulted in a split in connotation: well is standard, neutral, and colorless, while good is emotionally charged and emphatic. This makes good the adverb of choice in sports.

"I'm seeing the ball real good" is what you hear —
Roger Angell

Answer 3

Sample sentence:
"She played good". The use of good as an adverb is part of the vernacular in several American regions/groups. It is non standard as the standard adverb is "well". However, it is not "sub" standard as McWhorter pointed out.

Like any native dialect, a vernacular has an internally coherent system of grammar. It may be associated with a particular set of vocabulary, and spoken using a variety of accents, styles, and registers.[6] As American linguist John McWhorter describes about a number of dialects spoken in the American South in earlier U.S. history, including older African-American Vernacular English, "the often nonstandard speech of Southern white planters, nonstandard British dialects of indentured servants, and West Indian patois, [...] were nonstandard but not substandard."[7]

In other words, the adjective "nonstandard" should not be taken to mean that these various dialects were intrinsically incorrect, less logical, or otherwise inferior, only that they were not the socially perceived norm or mainstream considered prestigious or appropriate for public speech; however, nonstandard dialects are indeed often stigmatized as such, due to socially-induced post-hoc rationalization.[8] Again, however, linguistics regards all varieties of a language as coherent, complex, and complete systems—even nonstandard varieties.

vernacular

(Please note: What the uniniated do not realize is that even nonstandard dialects have rules. So, for example, if you get an utterance like: "Them boys been down in the holler". [Standard: "Those boys have been down in the hollow."] which is part of the regular speech of a southerner in the backwoods of Kentucky, saying this: "Those boys been down in the holler" could be out-of-step with the dialect.)

Answer 4

In addition to being an adjective, “good” can also be a noun,

good

2 of 3 noun

1. a: something that is good
   b 1. something conforming to the moral order of the universe
      2. praiseworthy character : goodness

   c: a good element or portion

2. a: advancement of prosperity or well-being

   the good of the community

   it's for your own good

   b: something useful or beneficial

   it's no good trying

3. a: something that has economic utility or satisfies an economic want

^{(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)}

Note that M-W actually has several more definitions I’ve elected not to include—several more follow on the theme of “good for sale” which is clearly another meaning entirely, and then definition “3 of 3” is the adverbial usage of “good” as a synonym for “well” that the question rejects.

My point is that “good”—in the sense of doing the right thing, improving things, “goodness,” can be used as a noun, which can “properly” be the object of a verb.

The quintessential example of this is “to do good,” as opposed “to do well.” There is nothing grammatically wrong with “to do good,” it just means something different from “to do well.” Doing well means performing to a high standard. Doing good means taking actions that improve things.

(A distinction frequently highlighted, especially by those who might otherwise insist upon “well”—the ending of the final episode of Boy Meets World provides an excellent and heartwarming example.)

This means that “she played good” could be used to mean “she played goodness,” which is certainly odd—I’m not sure, out of context, if it’s supposed to mean that she was faking being good, or if she was playing goodness as a role in a play, and even in context it’d be a weird way to say either of those things. But it’s not a grammatical error, it’s just an awkward and unusual (and often ambiguous) wording.

Answer 5

Basically, it's language on the move. 'Winning the game of tennis, she played good' is grammatically incorrect, and well should be the substitute for good.

However, leaving out implied words sort of justifies it - 'Winning the game, she played good tennis. As one certainly wouldn't say 'she played well tennis', except that 'she played tennis well' is quite acceptable.

Well is generally seen as an adverb (except for the hole in the ground...), whereas good is more generally used as an adjective. But more and more being used as an adverb, so eventually, like so many other words, will become accepted - if it's not already.

EDIT: I've not a clue about native American English speakers - this is written from a British English speaking pov. But it does appear to be becoming more prevalent in England, usually amongst the younger generation. Don't think quality of education comes into the equation at all...