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Listenever Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
The meaning of a past participle.
At 1:25 into the CNN video, a CNN reporter says this:
The balloon seemingly pops and the cooler plummets down, slowed by a parachute until splashdown.
If you look at the video, you'll see that she's describing what's happening in the video as it happens. First, the popping of the balloon, then the plummeting, then the slowing down, then finally the splashdown.
My question is why she would use the past participle "slowed" alone here instead of something like "and (then) is slowed by...." when she was going to describe the next action of "being slowed" in context.
The balloon seemingly pops and the cooler plummets down, slowed by a parachute until splashdown.
If you look at the video, you'll see that she's describing what's happening in the video as it happens. First, the popping of the balloon, then the plummeting, then the slowing down, then finally the splashdown.
My question is why she would use the past participle "slowed" alone here instead of something like "and (then) is slowed by...." when she was going to describe the next action of "being slowed" in context.
Top answer
The slowing happens while the cooler plummets down, not after (at least, that's what the description implies).
- The slowing happens while the cooler plummets down, not after (at least, that's what the description implies).
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3 Answers
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The slowing happens while the cooler plummets down, not after (at least, that's what the description implies).
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GPYThe slowing happens while the cooler plummets down, not after (at least, that's what the description implies).So do you think that the use of the past participle "slowed" clearly conveys the situation that the slowing happens while the cooler plummets down?
In other words, do you think that the quoted sentence is natural English as is?
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listeneverSo do you think that the use of the past participle "slowed" clearly conveys the situation that the slowing happens while the cooler plummets down?Yes. (Well, of course "plummets" implies speed, so the more it slows the less it "plummets", but this is a level of nit-picking that no one would care about.)
listenever
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