"Born"

Question

Enlighten me on the use of the word "Born"

"The baby is born" - Is it a passive sentence? Is the word born a past participle? What is the present tense for "born"

Or am i simply too confused about the use of the word?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi Selva,

Welcome to the Forum.

"The baby is born" - Is it a passive sentence? Is the word born a past participle? What is the present tense for "born"

The active verb is 'bear'. A woman bears a child / bore a child. However, this active form is rarely used in everyday English. We say A woman has a baby / had a baby.

I was born in 1970 is a passive sentence. However, we tend not to think of the word 'born' in the sense of a verb, but rather as an adjective. In her book on 'Teaching Tenses', Rosemary Aitken has a quote that I like. She says, about the the past participle in the passive, 'It is difficult to determine where adjectives begin and passives stop'.

Best wishes, Clive

Selva001 · Answer

Thank you clive, I have never found someone explaining things so clearly as you did. I really appreciate your response.

"Born"

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