Surprised

Question

Paddington was very surprised when he woke up and found himself in bed.
I saw the above in Funny Stories for 7 year olds.
How do we decide whether "surprised" is just an adjective or a passive construction?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Paddington was very surprised when he woke up and found himself in bed.
I saw the above in Funny Stories for 7 year olds.
How do we decide whether "surprised" is just an adjective or a passive construction? __________________________________________________________________________________________May I ask if you need to know the answer to this in order to understand the sentence? Consider that children aged 7 are unlikely to know terms like adjective and passive. Clive

Anonymous · Answer

JigneshbharatiHow do we decide whether "surprised" is just an adjective or a passive construction?

It is often not clear which way to interpret such constructions. If you are surprised "by" or "at" someone, it is passive; you need an agent for passive. If you are surprised infinitive clause, it is adjectival. I suppose there are other signals, but it often hardly matters. In your case, it is adjectival. You can test this by plugging in undoubted adjectives—"Paddington was very wet when he woke up." The passive needs an agent, too, and there is none here.

Surprised

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