This helped me understand the most, and later someone says I am well I am good are both correct. Which is/was my question. I am well. well applies to am(verb) I am good. Good applies to I(noun) Teachers and OCD grammar people have told me "I am well", is right though.
Yes, because the question is "How are you?" It's a question about the verb in "I am ...". Not "What are you?" which would be a question about the noun.
As I understand it, the reason "I am well" is correct, as opposed to "I am good" is due to meaning not grammatical correctness, as digitig said ("I am well" as opposed to "I am ill," vs. "I am good" as opposed to "I am evil"). People don't usually mean to say "I am a good person" when they answer that question. My earlier explanation was about the phrase "I speak English very well," where "well" is an adverb. Linking verbs such as forms of "to be" can connect the subject of the sentence with an adjective that modifies the subject, however, as RFortea pointed out. "Well" is acting as an adjective in the sentence "I am well," modifying the subject through a linking verb. So...in "I am well" and "I am good," "well" and "good" are both modifying "I." It's like the sentence "The dog is happy." "Happy" is adjective modifying "the dog." I don't know how good a job I've done of explaining things, but if you're confused about the part of speech, try replacing it with an adverb ending in -ly. In place of "I am well" you could say "I am happy" (with an adjective) but not "I am happily" (with an adverb)...whereas in place of "I speak English well," you could say something like "I speak English ridiculously," where the adverb would work.
