Chosen

Question

"You'll see people being chosen everyday"
Is it correct to say this instead of saying who is chosen.
And if I want to say just chosen "you'll see people chosen by..."
Is chosen in this sentence an adjective?

Englishmaven · Accepted Answer

Since "people" is plural, you would have to say "who are." It is also correct if you eliminate "being" as you have asked. Whether "chosen" is an adjective or not is interesting. We have a passive construction here. We don't lose that when the sentence is reduced.

You'll see people being chosen.
You'll see people who are chosen.
You'll see people who have been chosen.

"People" is the subject of being chosen, are chosen, and have been chosen. "People" is the grammatical subject, but it is not the agent of "chosen." Someone or something else is doing the choosing. "Chosen" is a transitive verb. We could add a "by" phrase exposing the agent. This all fits the description of a passive construction. Therefore, "chosen" is a verb, not an adjective.

It gets confusing sometimes because we do have adjectives that are derived from verbs. The window was broken. I could argue that "broken" is part of a passive construction, or I could are that it is an adjective modifying "window." Sometimes it helps to play around with similar sentences and constructions to figure things out grammatically.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Amir OghlowIs chosen in this sentence an adjective?

No. It is a verb. The distinction between verb forms and adjectives is rather complicated, and different linguists have different takes on it. It may benefit you to read CJ's answer in this thread, since you seem to be focused on adjectives versus passive forms.

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