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Haddie Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Clutched?

Can clutched be used as an adjective? As in, her hand was clutched in his firm grasp"
  

Top answer

Haddie As in, her hand was clutched in his firm grasp" That is passive voice, and is a perfectly good sentence. But here is its use as an adjective: He raised his hands defiantly over his head, his clutched fists holding the banner firmly.

— AlpheccaStars

  • Haddie As in, her hand was clutched in his firm grasp" That is passive voice, and is a perfectly good sentence.
  • But here is its use as an adjective: He raised his hands defiantly over his head, his clutched fists holding the banner firmly.
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10 Answers
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HaddieAs in, her hand was clutched in his firm grasp"
That is passive voice, and is a perfectly good sentence.

But here is its use as an adjective:

He raised his hands defiantly over his head, his clutched fists holding the banner firmly.
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Thank you AlpheccaStars. Although I'm still confused about whether or not my sentence is grammatically correct.
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Haddie Thank you AlpheccaStars. Although I'm still confused about whether or not my sentence is grammatically correct.
Didn't you read "is a perfectly good sentence. " in my post?
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Right. Your "but here....' had me a little confused though.
Thank you.
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Your sentence is perfectly good.
The word "clutched" though, is part of the verb. It is not an adjective.
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AlpheccaStarsHe raised his hands defiantly over his head, his clutched fists holding the banner firmly.
Are you sure you don't mean "clenched fists"?
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No. This isn't about clenched fists. It's about one person's hand clutched in the grasp of another's
GPY AlpheccaStarsHe raised his hands defiantly over his head, his clutched fists holding the banner firmly.Are you sure you don't mean "clenched fists"?
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HaddieNo. This isn't about clenched fists. It's about one person's hand clutched in the grasp of another's
Sure, I realise that, but I was questioning the phrase "clutched fists" in the subsequent clutched-as-adjective example. When I read it, it didn't seem right.
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GPYSure, I realise that, but I was questioning the phrase "clutched fists" in the subsequent clutched-as-adjective example. When I read it, it didn't seem right.
I was taking it from an example from the American Corpus. There were exceedingly few citations with "clutched" as a noun modifier. 99% were verbs, either simple past or passive.
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AlpheccaStarsI was taking it from an example from the American Corpus. There were exceedingly few citations with "clutched" as a noun modifier. 99% were verbs, either simple past or passive.
If "clutched fist" is actually a known expression then I'm happy to be corrected, but my feeling, looking through various search results, is that all instances are mistake
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