[Grammar] sit silent or sit silently

[BrianW]

I'm quite confused about whether we should say sit 'silent' or 'silently', I can find both expressions on the internet.
Somebody help me please.

 

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forum, Brian.

When I was in the classroom I used to say 'sit quietly'.

If you insist on absolute silence being maintained, you could tell your students to 'sit silently', though it doesn't sound natural to me.

Rover

 

[FreeToyInside]

Agreed with Rover - in AmE we would tend to use 'quiet' here.

Where I grew up, Americans are quite averse to using adverbs. If my brother and I were in trouble, my mom would yell at us to 'sit there quiet!' I always took that as 'sit there and be quiet', but as I got older I started realizing it's just because people around there hate adverbs. 'Sit quietly' appeals to the west coast part of me, but 'sit quiet' still feels natural to the midwest part of me, because I think of it not as how you sit there, rather what you're doing while sitting there - being quiet.


(not a teacher, just a language lover)

 

[BrianW]

Thank you both so much! I'll just tell my students what you've said, otherwise I really had no idea how to explain that.:up:

 

[5jj]

If you insist on absolute silence being maintained, you could tell your students to 'sit silently', though it doesn't sound natural to me.

In that situation, I'd say, "Sit in silence".