ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

Sense verbs are verbs (such as feel, taste, smell, hear, see, watch, sense, listen to, sound, look, appear, and seem) that describe someone's sensation or feeling or perception.  Unlike other verbs, they require adjective, not adverb, modifiers.

For example:

The rotisserie chicken tastes awfully. (X)

The rotisserie chicken tastes awful.  (O)

ð Meaning: The rotisserie chicken tastes awful to me.  I think that the rotisserie chicken tastes awful.  This tastes like an awful rotisserie chicken to me. 

ð Here awful is an adjective that modifies the noun chicken. Using the adverb awfully would not make sense here, because it would mean that rotisserie chicken is very good at tasting.

She looked good even after a surgery.  (O) 

She looked well even after a surgery.  (X)

ð Here, we want to describe how she looked.  Use an adjective to describe a noun or pronoun. 

This apple smells delicious.   (O)

This apple smells deliciously.  (X)

ð Here delicious is an adjective that modifies the noun apple. Using the adverb deliciously here would not make sense, because it would mean that the apple can smell things in a delicious manner.

Note:  If the word modifies the subject, you should use an adjective. If the word modifies the verb, you should use an adverb.

For example:

The dog tastes quickly then leaves.

=> Here quickly is an adverb that modifies the verb tastes.