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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

Participle in past perfect progressive or adjective in past perfect

Hi, How could we tell if a participle in what looks like a past perfect progressive tense is a participle part of the tense or an adjective of a past perfect tense construction?

The cook had been making cake all day until he was called by the head chef to do other tasks. -- looks to be a good past past perfect progressive tense.

The student had been finishing up on his composition when a knock on the door put a stop to it. -- looks to be an adjectival phrase with past perfect before it.
  

Top answer

Hi, How could we tell if a participle in what looks like a past perfect progressive tense is a participle part of the tense or an adjective of a past perfect tense construction? The cook had been making cake all day until he was called by the head chef to do other tasks. -- looks to be a good past past perfect progressive tense.

— Clive

  • Hi, How could we tell if a participle in what looks like a past perfect progressive tense is a participle part of the tense or an adjective of a past perfect tense construction?
  • The cook had been making cake all day until he was called by the head chef to do other tasks.
  • -- looks to be a good past past perfect progressive tense.
  • The student had been finishing up on his composition when a knock on the door put a stop to it.
  • -- looks to be an adjectival phrase with past perfect before it.
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5 Answers
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Hi,
How could we tell if a participle in what looks like a past perfect progressive tense is a participle part of the tense or an adjective of a past perfect tense construction?

The cook had been making cake all day until he was called by the head chef to do other tasks. -- looks to be a good past past perfect progressive tense.

The student had been finishing up on his comp
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The problem of disambiguating a participle that is part of a verb phrase from a participle that is an adjective is not related at all to the past perfect tense. Any time you have the verb to be in any tense, the same problem can occur.
You seem to be focusing on present participles.
As a general rule -- but it is not 100% accurate -- an animate subject will lead you to thin
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Had and been are both helping verbs. Helping verbs must help action verbs. In this sentence, had and been are helping the present participle making, which is an action verb. Because making is a present participle, it must have helping verbs to help it.
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HI. Although it seems to be a thread that was started a long time ago, I found your explanation to be very good.

Could you help us by telling (showing?) us how we could distinguish whether a past participle is part of the verb (that is the verb "to be", I think) or is a past participle acting as an adjective?
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AnonymousCould you help us by telling (showing?) us how we could distinguish whether a past participle is part of the verb (that is the verb "to be", I think) or is a past participle acting as an adjective?
Whereas the confusion with the present participle is between an adjective and part of a progressive verb form, the confusion with the past participle is be
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