hi everybody my name is alicia 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 maybe 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 seems 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 a liaison with the new
clients
okay so in 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 too
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
ugh 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 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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thanks very much for watching this
episode of know your verbs and we'll see
you again soon bye