ACT Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar

hi everybody my name is Alisha welcome

back to know your verbs in this episode

we’re going to talk about the verb act

let’s get started acting

it was hard to choose like a basic

definition of this verb because I think

depending on the person there are a

couple different meanings that you might

think is the basic definition of fact so

I’ve kind of picked one for this lesson

okay so the basic definition for this

lesson is to take action to do something

examples act now and save money we need

to act quickly okay now let’s look at

the conjugations for this verb present

act acts past acted past participle

acted progressive acting

so now let’s talk about some additional

meanings for this verb the first one is

to perform as a character to perform as

a character some examples he acted in a

musical last summer I love to act okay

so in the first example sentence he

acted in a musical last summer means he

performed as a character in a musical

last summer so to act means like to

perform in some way in a production so a

musical or a theater production by the

way musicals are the performances with

singing and dancing usually a play is

the same thing but no singing and no

dancing really just talking so a play is

just talking musicals singing and

dancing so he acted in a musical last

summer the second example sentence was I

love to act in other words I love to

perform as a character so this may be is

a common hobby for many people I think

okay let’s go on to the second meaning

for this verb to behave to behave so

this is a very open meaning to behave in

some way it means like your manners are

like the way that you present yourself

or the way that you show yourself

examples she acts like she’s angry but

she’s actually happy

my dog is acting strange

okay so in these examples we’re talking

about a person’s behavior in the first

example sentence she’s acting like she’s

angry it means she’s behaving in a way

that makes it seem like she’s angry so

something about her behavior maybe her

facial expression or her body language

or something like that we think she’s

angry she seemed angry but she’s

actually happy in the second example

sentence my dog is acting strange

there’s something about my dog’s

behavior that is strange so maybe my dog

is behaving in a way that is not typical

for my dog so maybe my dog is running in

circles but he doesn’t usually do that

that’s strange I could say my dog is

acting strange so my dog is behaving in

a strange way okay let’s go on to

another additional meaning for this verb

the third additional meaning is to

perform a function to perform a function

some examples my phone case acts as a

credit card holder she’s acting as

liaison with the new clients okay so on

both of these sentences we see one thing

or one person is behaving or performing

a specific function in the first example

sentence it’s a phone case my phone case

acts as a credit card holder so it has

the function of a phone case yes but

there’s also this other function I can

use my phone case to put credit cards

inside so it acts as a credit card

holder to in the second example sentence

she’s acting as a liaison with the new

clients it means she is performing the

function of a liaison a liaison is a

person who’s kind of a go-between for

communication between two groups so she

is the go-between she’s performing the

function of the go-between she’s acting

as a liaison for the clients the fourth

additional meaning for this verb is to

have an effect to have an effect some

examples the poison acted quickly

the sad story acted on the audience’s

emotions okay in the first example

sentence the poison acted quickly we see

the poison had an effect quickly that’s

what acted means here we’re seeing it in

the past tense and it means to have an

effect in this case so the poison had an

effect quickly in the second example

sentence however we’re talking about an

effect on people’s emotions not like a

medicinal effect like we saw in the

first example sentence the second

example sentence was the sad story acted

on the audience’s emotions in other

words the sad story had an effect on the

audience’s emotions so that means

probably that the audience felt sad or

the audience felt maybe disappointed or

something the audience’s emotions were

affected by the story by the sad story

so we say the sad story acted on the

audience’s emotions so this means to

have an effect

okay let’s move on to some variations in

how we use this verb the first variation

is act up to act up this means to

exhibit negative behavior to have bad

behavior some examples my asthma is

acting up the kids acted up at the

dinner party last night

okay so in the first example sentence I

mentioned asthma actually asthma is a

sickness it’s a disease asthma asthma is

very common it’s a lung problem or kind

of a breathing related problem where it

becomes difficult to breathe depending

on different situations for different

people so if I say my asthma is acting

up it means my asthma is behaving in a

negative way my asthma is there’s some

problem with it my condition is not good

because of my asthma my asthma my

illness in other words is kind of strong

right now it’s acting up so I’m having

problems because of my asthma right now

in the second example sentence however

it’s a person in this case kids so kids

acting up at a dinner party means kids

were displaying bad behavior negative

behavior at a dinner party so acting up

means something negative is happening

some kind of negative behavior is

occurring okay so the next variation is

to act out to act out also does mean to

behave in kind of a negative way but the

difference between act out and act up is

act out has the feeling of doing this

bad behavior in order to get attention

so you act out because you want to be

noticed some examples of this your son

has been acting out in school

she’s only acting out because she wants

attention so acting out is like you’re

making some kind of extreme behavior or

maybe it’s like kind of scandalous or

maybe it’s really rude or maybe it’s

like too sexy there can be lots of

different ways to act out but the idea

is that the action happens because this

person wants to get some attention

whether negative or positive doesn’t

matter just wants attention but we

should be careful because this is

different from to act something out to

act something out is different from to

act out to act something out means to

represent an activity with your body so

that means to showcase a scene or to

explain a scene in a movie or to kind of

show somebody a gesture with your body

so examples we acted out our favorite

movie scene she acted out the story so

acting something out means using your

body like physically using parts of your

body to act out to show something so for

example like a simple action if I want

to act out making a phone call I would

do this like making the gestures of

making a phone call we could say this is

acting out a phone call hello that’s

acting something out I’m using my body

and I’m using gestures to explain

something to explain a behavior so this

is different to act something out and to

act out have very different meanings so

be cautious to act something out takes a

direct object to act out does not so

please be careful of this there are some

grammatical hints for you there all

right that’s everything so I hope that

you got some new ways of using the verb

act of course there are other ways to

use this verb check out a dictionary if

you want to see some other information

of course if you have something you want

to share or if there’s an example

sentence you would like to try to make

please feel free to do so in the comment

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much for watching this episode of know

your verbs and we’ll see you again soon

bye bye