# “Acting strange\[ly\]” **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 12, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509 "2014-03-12T03:20:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/1 "2014-03-12T03:20:21Z")
_In re_ [“Is ‘acting strangely’ grammatically incorrect?”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1123/is-acting-strangely-grammatically-incorrect): Actually, the original questioner was wrong all through. “Acting strange” and “acting strangely” are both entirely acceptable. _Vide_ the OED, _s.v._ “act”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/2 "2014-03-12T04:24:58Z")
Yeah, I remember noticing that the last time that one came around. Both work, because “acting” can be both a linking verb or an action verb. “He is acting in a strange manner” does not sound incorrect, does it? Well, “in a strange manner” is an adverbial phrase that means the same thing as “strangely.” ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/3 "2014-03-12T15:38:16Z")
This reminds me of a bit by comedian George Wallace. He says when he was young, his mother made him go to his room and told him “Don’t come down until you learn how to act.” So then, he says, he was up in his room saying “To be, or not to be…” I agree, “acting strangely” and “acting in a strange manner” mean the same thing, and both of them make sense. But it seems like a slippery slope from here to admitting that “I felt badly” is okay, and then god help us all. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/4 "2014-03-12T16:00:33Z")
“I feel badly” is okay, but has a different meaning than “I feel bad”. Someone who feels badly might be numb, or have nervous damage, or otherwise have an impaired sense of touch. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/5 "2014-03-12T17:02:42Z")
Or you can feel bad about prepositionating a sentence endifing of. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/6 "2014-03-12T19:20:39Z")
> [@sbunny8](#): > > But it seems like a slippery slope from here to admitting that “I felt badly” is okay, and then god help us all. “Slippery slope” is always a slippery slope; in matters of natural-language idiom, it’s a straight downhill schuss into madness. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/7 "2014-03-13T01:16:06Z")
> [@sbunny8](#): > > I agree, “acting strangely” and “acting in a strange manner” mean the same thing, and both of them make sense. But it seems like a slippery slope from here to admitting that “I felt badly” is okay, and then god help us all. Fortunately, “felt” does not have a active verb form that means almost the same thing as its linking verb form. “Acting” does. I actually would not say that someone is “acting bad,” as “bad” in that form connotates evil. I would use “acting badly” whether I meant they were behaving in an unpleasant manner or doing a poor job on stage. ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/8 "2014-03-13T17:22:16Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I would use “acting badly” whether I meant they were behaving in an unpleasant manner or doing a poor job on stage. When you’re up on stage playing the part of Snidely Whiplash, you are acting bad. When you are supposed to be playing Snidely Whiplash and you come across sounding more like Dudley Doright, you are acting badly. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/9 "2014-03-14T18:33:13Z")
And as some wag remarked years ago, the only person with a right to say, “I feel badly,” is an inept dirty old man. But “act” means more than one thing, and in the non-theatrical sense, it happens that “act strange” and “act strangely”, when applied to the real world, end up meaning more or less the same thing. Language is a lot more complex than our schoolteachers wanted it to be. ---
**Author:** ![WheatCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@WheatCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WheatCat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/10 "2014-03-20T13:49:42Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Or you can feel bad about prepositionating a sentence endifing of. ‘…ending in “of”’ would be OK, wouldn’t it? Anyway, condemnation of the prepositional sentence ending originated in a pedantic 19th century grammar text whose pedantic author thought, with no linguistic justice at all, that English should conform to Latin grammatical practice. Somehow the fool idea caught on, even though it was never recognized by the likes of Shakespeare and Milton. Hopefully another master of the the English language will eventually have the last word: “This is the type of nonsense up with which I will not put” (Churchill). ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/11 "2014-03-20T18:36:43Z")
I can never remember whether it was the “rule” against ending a sentence with a preposition or the “rule” against splitting an infinitive that C. S. Lewis called “a Frenchified schoolroom superstition”, but it applies to both. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/12 "2014-03-20T20:59:48Z")
Person 1: Who are you going with? Person 2: That’s bad grammar, you’re not suppose to end a sentence with a preposition. Person 1: Okay, Who are you going with, Stupid? ---
**Author:** ![WheatCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@WheatCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WheatCat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/13 "2014-03-20T22:19:56Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > Person 1: Who are you going with? > Person 2: That’s bad grammar, you’re not suppose to end a sentence with a preposition. > Person 1: Okay, Who are you going with, Stupid? Here’s another version: African-American Harvard freshman, 1st day on campus, asks random passerby who happens to be a Preppy Harvard senior: “Hey man, where’s the library at”? Preppy Harvard senior: At Hahvahd university we do _not_ end our sentences with prepostions! A-A freshman: A-w-w-rat then, wuh’s duh liberry at, you _muthafucka_? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/14 "2014-03-22T00:58:02Z")
Well, “Where’s it at?” is wrong, not because it ends with a proposition, but because it ends with a pointless proposition. As a Buddhist might say, _where_ already has _at_-nature. ---
**Author:** ![WheatCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@WheatCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WheatCat)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/15 "2014-03-22T01:49:27Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Well, “Where’s it at?” is wrong, not because it ends with a proposition, but because it ends with a pointless proposition. As a Buddhist might say, _where_ already has _at_-nature. You mean preposition. I hate to think what might happened if the senior preppy had suggested that the A-A frosh was _propositioning_ him. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-strange-ly/683509/16 "2014-03-23T04:25:13Z")
Whoops! Yes, I meant “preposition” of course. Nowadays I talk a great deal more about propositions than prepositions, and my silly fingers went the wrong way when I took my eyes off them for a moment.