Teacher Discussion Forums

The children are acting impatient/impatiently.

Correct response and more importantly Why??

Hello,
impatiently because this is an adverb and tells us how the action of the verb is being done.

The verb act can be linking or action. When functioning as an action verb — like when the children are putting on a production and have to act — the adverb would be used. In this context, impatiently doesn't seem to fit though. When functioning as a linking verb — to convey how the children are behaving or putting on airs — adjectives, like sad or impatient, are correct.