Not long ago a columnist who shall be nameless discussed a Supreme Court case in which “both parties felt strongly about the issue.” The sentence provoked a reproof from Harriet Graham, who lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

“Forgive me for being picky,” she wrote, “but you used an adverb where an adjective was needed.”

It pains a young whippersnapper to disagree with any retired teacher of English, but there’s nothing at all wrong with “both parties felt strongly.” Would my instructor want me to write that both parties “felt strong about the issue?” Come now! To be sure, both parties could feel “strong” if they had just enjoyed a good night’s sleep, but if we’re dealing with emotion and not with physical health, the adverbial “strongly” works just fine.

The verb “to feel” is a slippery critter. Think about it. There is the tactile “feel,” as in, “Dr. Watson felt the bruised arm carefully.” (Surely he did not feel the bruised arm careful.)

There is a “feel” for emotions. When Al Gore was asked about Bill Clinton’s tryst with Monica Lewinsky, he told a reporter, “As a good friend of the president and the first lady, I feel badly for them and their family.”

There is a “feel” for health: “The president was feeling really good in Baghdad.” In passing, note the huge semantic difference between feeling merely well and feeling really good.

Finally there is the “feel” of belief, opinion or conviction: “He felt differently about the Aid to Disability Act after he broke both legs.” “Evidently Hogan felt a mashie would be a better choice than a niblick.” Hogan probably should have used a 7-iron.

The editors of Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage devote two columns to feeling bad and feeling badly. Their comments lead us to the “flat adverb.” Until I wandered into this column two weeks ago, I had never met a flat adverb – at least by that name. Now I can inform you that “A flat adverb is an adverb that has the same form as its related adjective: ‘fast’ in ‘drive fast,’ ‘slow’ in ‘go slow,’ ‘sure’ in ‘you sure fooled me,’ and ‘flat’ in ‘she turned me down flat.”‘

It appears from the editors’ discussion that flat adverbs, as distinguished from well-rounded adverbs, once were more popular than they are now: “Two centuries of chipping away by schoolmasters and grammarians has (have?) reduced the number of flat adverbs in common use and has (have?) lowered the status of quite a few others.” Most of the flats compete with familiar “ly” forms, e.g., bad/badly and fair/fairly. The sun shines bright, not brightly, on that old Kentucky home.

Changing the muddled subject: A query is at hand about this sentence: “The First Amendment forbids Congress from passing any law respecting an establishment of religion.” Reader Douglas Starr questions “forbids Congress from passing.” Shouldn’t it be “forbids Congress to pass”? Good question.

In his recently published “Garner’s American Usage,” lexicographer Bryan Garner finds both forms equally acceptable, though “forbid to” is a bit more formal. He cites as examples: “The ordinance forbids small stores from selling newspapers” and “The court struck down laws that forbid retailers to advertise their prices for beer, wine and liquor.”

My thought is that “forbid to” is a tad more emphatic than “forbid from.” When angry father is dealing with erring daughter, “I forbid you to see that scoundrel again,” father means business. If he merely forbids her from seeing the fellow again, he probably can be sweet-talked into permission.

Robert Miller of Brooklyn asks if there is any useful difference between “the argument commenced in the bar,” “the argument began in the bar” and “the argument started in the bar.” The choice depends upon editorial ambience – that is, the context in which the incident is reported. If Mr. Miller is writing for The New York Times, the sanguinary encounter commenced; in the New York Daily News, the spirited roughhouse began; in the New York Post, the bloody brawl started. First rule for writers: Write to your audience.

James Kilpatrick is a syndicated columnist.

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