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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Participles and adjectives
Hi,
I am trying to understand the use of participles as adjectives and as verb form.
An example:
"It had been fascinating."
fascinating could be an adjectiv, like great, healthy, blue and so on (and had been would be past perfect tense)
but it also could be a present participle used as an adjectiv
and it could be used as a tense (past perfect progressive) too?!
How do you know how to translate that sentence?
Another example:
What is the difference in meaning between:
"The apple had been rotted" (rotted is a past participle adjectiv)
and
"The apple had been rotten" (rotten is a adjectiv)
I really find it very hard to use the english grammar correctly...
Oh and one last question:
Many "normal" adjectives are just participles, right? like frozen, cooked, loved... right?
I am trying to understand the use of participles as adjectives and as verb form.
An example:
"It had been fascinating."
fascinating could be an adjectiv, like great, healthy, blue and so on (and had been would be past perfect tense)
but it also could be a present participle used as an adjectiv
and it could be used as a tense (past perfect progressive) too?!
How do you know how to translate that sentence?
Another example:
What is the difference in meaning between:
"The apple had been rotted" (rotted is a past participle adjectiv)
and
"The apple had been rotten" (rotten is a adjectiv)
I really find it very hard to use the english grammar correctly...
Oh and one last question:
Many "normal" adjectives are just participles, right? like frozen, cooked, loved... right?
Top answer
You are right for the most part. Really, you have to pay attention to the context of the sentence. If I say, "The speaker was fascinating," it is fairly obvious that I mean to use "fascinating" as an adjective.
- You are right for the most part.
- Really, you have to pay attention to the context of the sentence.
- If I say, "The speaker was fascinating," it is fairly obvious that I mean to use "fascinating" as an adjective.
- If it were a verb, it would have an object.
- The speaker was fascinating the members of the audience with his delivery alone.
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1 Answers
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You are right for the most part. Really, you have to pay attention to the context of the sentence. If I say, "The speaker was fascinating," it is fairly obvious that I mean to use "fascinating" as an adjective. If it were a verb, it would have an object.
The speaker was fascinating the members of the audience with his delivery alone. His charisma, his charm, was all he needed. Everyone b
The speaker was fascinating the members of the audience with his delivery alone. His charisma, his charm, was all he needed. Everyone b
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