Passive sentences

Question

HIFor some verbs past participle and adjective form are the same ,below examples:i.e  A present was beautifully wrapped in a gold paperi.e  Among the papers was a brown folder stamped 'secret'If wrapped and stamped are adjectives both sentences are active if not they  are passive,how should i recognize active or passive in above sentences???Thanks

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

You can generally tell active versus passive by determining the actor related to the participle. If the actor is not the subject, but something else, then it is passive voice.

A present was beautifully wrapped in a gold paper.

The actor is not the present, because presents do not wrap themselves.

e.g.:

Mother wrapped the present in a gold paper.

Thus, it is passive voice.

Among the papers was a brown folder stamped 'secret'

A folder cannot stamp itself. e.g.

Among the papers was a brown folder (that an official in the secret service had) stamped "secret".

Thus, it is passive voice.

Most of the time, the past participle is connected with the passive voice.

CalifJim · Answer

bmojtabaA present was beautifully wrapped in a gold paper

This is the better example for illustrating the ambiguity you're talking about. Somebody wrapped a present beautifully in a gold paper is the corresponding active form of the quoted passive sentence. At the same time, we can think of this as a sentence with a linking verb. beautifully wrapped in gold paper describes a present. In this interpretation, nothing happened; nobody did any wrapping of any presents. It's just a stative description of a present. You can never be sure which of the two you have without further context. There are many such ambiguous sentences in English. Thus, there are two different meanings for each of these, one stative, one dynamic:

She was frightened.

The door was closed.

The vase was broken.

bmojtabaAmong the papers was a brown folder stamped 'secret'

This is not a passive sentence. It's saying There was a brown folder stamped 'secret' among the papers. The clause with stamped is a past participle construction used to modify the noun folder. It has the sense of the passive voice, but it doesn't make the whole sentence a passive sentence.

CJ

AlpheccaStars · Answer

CJ provided a good clarification. Sorry for the confusion!

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This sentence is active voice, not passive.

Among the papers was a brown folder.

The clause (underlined) is in passive voice:

Among the papers was a brown folder (that had been) stamped "secret" (by an official in the government..)

Passive sentences

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