I broke my leg

Question

Hello everyone. Which of these sentences are correct?

1. I broke my leg.
2. My leg is broken.
3. my leg was broken.
I personally think that it is uaual to say ... "I broke my leg" and it is a correct sentence. But can the other two sentences be correct in any situations?

GPY · Accepted Answer

All of those are correct English (except for the capitalisation inconsistency).

(1) is describing an event that happened in the past.
(2) is describing the present state of your leg.
(3) is describing the past state of your leg.

Sunny123 · Answer

GPYAll of those are correct English (except for the capitalisation inconsistency).(1) is describing an event that happened in the past.(2) is describing the present state of your leg.(3) is describing the past state of your leg.

Thank you for your good answer. Can the following sentence be correct too?
In what situation you may use that?

4. I had my leg broken.
?

GPY · Answer

sunny123Thank you for your good answer. Can the following sentence be correct too?In what situation you may use that?4. I had my leg broken.

I would not recommend this (except in a very unusual situation where you deliberately allowed someone to break your leg).

Anonymous · Answer

sunny1233. my leg was broken.

My should have a capital M.

You could say that if your leg was broken in the past but, is not now.

GPY · Answer

GPY(3) is describing the past state of your leg.

Very belatedly, I have remembered a further comment that I intended to add to this.

In fact, "My leg was broken" can be read in two slightly different ways. In the first, "broken" is viewed as an adjective, describing the state of the leg, as I mentioned. For example: "I looked down and saw that my leg was broken". In the second, "broken" is viewed as a passive verb, so the statement describes a past passive action. For example: "My leg was broken by a falling branch" or "My leg was broken in a skiing accident".

The same applies in theory to "My leg is broken", but the use of the present passive would be rare, so almost always this would describe state.

Vsuresh · Answer

GPY"My leg was broken by a falling branch"

I have a question with this. I don't know if it sounds insane.

Falling branch sounds as if the action is incomplete against the result- leg being broken

Please give your comments.

Sunny123 · Answer

vsuresh GPY"My leg was broken by a falling branch"I have a question with this. I don't know if it sounds insane.Falling branch sounds as if the action is incomplete against the result- leg being brokenPlease give your comments.

Hello, probably the falling branch hit his leg on the way and broke his leg.

CalifJim · Answer

vsureshFalling branch sounds as if the action is incomplete

I suppose it does, but that's not a problem when we say "broken by a falling branch". The fact is, we can't realistically have a leg "broken by a fallen branch", which is an alternative — by the very fact that the action is complete. Once fallen, the branch is on the ground, and it can't very well get up and break the leg at that point. (See sunny123's remark above.)

Interesting point. There's a moment in time when the falling isn't complete but the breaking is.

Excuse my butting in to your discussion.

CJ

Vsuresh · Answer

CalifJimThe fact is, we can't realistically have a leg "broken by a fallen branch", which is an alternative — by the very fact that the action is complete. Once fallen, the branch is on the ground, and it can't very well get up and break the leg at that point.

Thank you,CJ. I understand it well.

Thank you,Sunny.

I broke my leg

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