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Edward Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Clarification needed on tense and past participles

The sentence "your body is relaxed" - "is" is present tense of the verb "to be", right? And is 'relaxed' the past participle?

Also, the sentence "the restaurant staff played football against the customers" - what type of words are 'restaurant' and 'staff'. 'Staff' is a noun, right? And 'restaurant' is an adverb, or what??

Please can you help clarify.

Thanks
  

Top answer

I would say, in the first instance "is" is the present tense of "to be", as you say. "relaxed" is a past participle used as an adjective (attribute)/cf: your body is beautiful. In the second instance, "restaurant" is absolutely NO adverb; it's a noun, the whole meaning "the staff of the restaurant".

— Pieanne

  • I would say, in the first instance "is" is the present tense of "to be", as you say.
  • "relaxed" is a past participle used as an adjective (attribute)/cf: your body is beautiful.
  • In the second instance, "restaurant" is absolutely NO adverb; it's a noun, the whole meaning "the staff of the restaurant".
  • It defines the kind of staff you're talking about.
  • Staff is a noun too, you're right.
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7 Answers
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I would say, in the first instance
"is" is the present tense of "to be", as you say.
"relaxed" is a past participle used as an adjective (attribute)/cf: your body is beautiful.

In the second instance, "restaurant" is absolutely NO adverb; it's a noun, the whole meaning "the staff of the restaurant". It defines the kind of staff you're talking about.
Staff is a noun too, y
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But it's a noun functioning as an adjective, isn't it?
What kind of staff? A restaurant staff.
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Can we say "the restaurants staff"? I mean in general.
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Can we say "the restaurants staff"? I mean in general.


Well, adjectives don't inflect for number, so adding -s to 'restaurant' doesn't an adjective make. But if we add an apostrophe, we'd get a possessive noun:

restaurant staff (adjective)
restaurant's staff (possessive noun)
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I know, that's why I asked. If you had said "yes, it's possible", then it couldn't have been an adjective.
So it's like in "a 3 day journey/ a 3 days' journey", the noun is used as an adjective?
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So it's like in "a 3 day journey/ a 3 days' journey", the noun is used as an adjective?


That's correct, Pieanne. Every word in a sentence has a form (what it looks like) and a function (what it does). In our example, "restaurant staff" the word 'restaurant' is a noun in form and an adjective in function. It tells us what kind of staff.

All the best,
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All the best to you too, Casi...
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