student asking question

If I say "eat healthy" rather than "eat healthily", does it become wrong?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Eat more healthily" in this case is the form which is grammatically correct, because "healthily" is an adverb and is used to describe that the verb "eat" is in a healthy way. Saying "eat healthy" instead is technically incorrect, because it does not use an adverb where there should be one, although you can still use this phrase, because it is common to use in English. In fact, "eat healthy" is the most commonly said over "eat healthily", even though it is technically incorrect. "Eat healthy" has become sort of an idiom in English to refer to healthy eating. Ex: She eats very healthy. Ex: I wish I could eat more healthy. Both of these expressions are technically incorrect grammar, however, they are both common to use. In English, not very many people actually use the word "healthily" anymore.

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