Passive Voice or Past Participle Adjective?

Question

In "He is happy," "happy" is clearly an adjective. How about the the past participle in each of the following sentences? Is it an adjective or is it a verb in the passive voice?

1. She was surprised.

2. He is depressed.

3. They are excited.

I teach adult ESL.

Thank you very much!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

BuildMyEnglishIn "He is happy," "happy" is clearly an adjective. How about the the past participle in each of the following sentences? Is it an adjective or is it a verb in the passive voice?

In the absence of further context, we instinctively take all three to be adjectives (derived from verbs, of course).

The discussion at has a section that gives tests for participle-adjectives.

In my opinion the only example you've given that might be considered passive voice (in the proper context) is the one with 'was surprised', because one person can surprise another, i.e., take them by surprise.

Lady Hertford was surprised by a visit from Mrs Knight last week.
I was surprised by a totally unexpected letter from the French ambassador.
One explanation of the military defeat suggests that the advancing column was surprised by the Welsh.
Perhaps the builder was surprised by the husband. After all, the wife wouldn't have told. Would she?
Early one morning he was surprised by a booming voice.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

An adjective can be intesified using the word 'very'. A verb cannot. You can say 'he is very interested', but you can't say 'he was very killed'. Thus, a simple test to this question is to insert 'very'. In all cases above, this can be done, so they are all adjectives, not passive voice.

Passive Voice or Past Participle Adjective?

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