Linda waited for Martin to finish patiently.

[keannu]

I once posted this question, but as there's still others' questions about this, so I'd like to make it clear.

My grammar book defines "Adverbs meaning a method or a state usually describe after a verb(1) or at the end of a sentence.(2), but many teachers here told me 2's "patiently" desribes not "waited" but "finish", so if 2 is vague, would 3 be the solution to describe "finish" for sure? What do you think of 2?

gz67
1. Linda waited patiently for Martin to finish.
2. Linda waited for Martin to finish patiently.
3. Linda waited for Martin to patiently finish.

[emsr2d2]

2 is very ambiguous. Common sense dictates that the person speaking meant that the waiting happened patiently, but the position of the word "patiently" makes it look as if Linda was waiting ... for Martin to finish patiently. That makes no sense though and, as usual, you have to attach some common sense to these kinds of sentences.