Jack waited patiently for his turn at bat. What verb does the adverb modify?

The verb waited is being modified by patiently.

Explanation:

Hi!

Alright so how I identify adverbs and verbs is by removing them to see if the sentence makes sense.

If you remove an adverb the sentence will still make sense.

If you remove just a verb then it will make no sense.

For example :

"I will eat later."

The adverb here is later.

And the verb is eat.

If you remove the adverb you get :

"I will eat" which is less descriptive but still makes sense.

If you remove the verb you get :

"I will later" which doesn't really mean anything. You don't know what is going on later and the statement on its own makes no sense.

Lets use this for your given sentence and remove some things to identify the adverb and verb.

Jack waited patiently for his turn at bat.

Removing waited :

Jack patiently for his turn at bat.

This makes no sense which means it is a verb.

Lets try removing bat :

Jack patiently waited for his turn at.

This makes no sense which means it is a verb.

If you're wondering about patiently lets try removing that.

Removing patiently :

Jack waited for his turn at bat.

This is the adverb cause this sentence still makes sense.

So pretty much here patiently is the adverb and this modifies the verb waited.

Since patiently is describing the verb waiting.

Waiting patiently.

The verb waited is being modified by patiently.

I hope this helps!

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to comment or message me! :)