"He went ill and came back healthy" is it correct

Question

I heard a man say:

He went ill and came back healthy.

Here ill and healthy are adjectives and qualify the subject, he.

And the sentence structure is:

sub + verb + adjective

Is it grammatically correct and how native speakers express this?

Thank you.

James K · Answer

It means "When he went he was ill. When he came back, he was healthy".

Grammatically the word ill is an adjective.  It describes the subject. This is not a very common expression.

There is some ambiguity. The phrase "go ill" also means "become ill". I don't think this is the meaning here because "come back healthy" doesn't mean "become healthy".  So "go" has its usual meaning of "travel (to some place)". He physically moved. This is the most natural reading given the (lack of) context.

"He went ill and came back healthy" is it correct

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