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Eddie88 Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

This sentence isn't grammatical is it

I have recently learned that the past participle is used for the passive voice, while the present participle is used for the active voice.

Many are trying to say that this sentence is grammatical:

"I see them glisten a little, illuminated by the street lights."

1) Correct me if I 'm wrong, but the past participle, glisten, should in fact be a present participle as it is active voice ('them' are glistening).

I see them glistening a little, illuminated by the street lights

2)Additionally, if the tense of the verb 'see' was changed to the past tense, the past participle would still be incorrect, since it is still active voice. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Your confirmation and thoughts would be great!
  

Top answer

Just as an aside, Eddie, I take "glisten" as an infinitive here. " How ya' been? - A.

  • Just as an aside, Eddie, I take "glisten" as an infinitive here.
  • " How ya' been?
  • - A.
  • BTW, I'd say both are correct.
  • The infinitive and the present participle are often interchangeable in these situations.
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17 Answers
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Just as an aside, Eddie, I take "glisten" as an infinitive here. I believe the past participle is "glistened."

How ya' been? - A.

BTW, I'd say both are correct. The infinitive and the present participle are often interchangeable in these si
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Woopsey, of course it is an infinitive.

The past participle "seen" is used in forming the present tense, passive voice


Is this the case with all verbs (the past participle is used only for present tense, passive voice)? That's what I've been told, but it would good for you to confirm i
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His shoes were being shined by a machine. "Shined" is the past participle. (passive voice)
I use the continuous to avoid the "to be + past participle" controversy.

So you would write it thus:

A machine was shinning his shoes. (active voice). This is far better, isn't it.

?

Cheers.
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I'm fine. Several of my kids are collecting from around the country for a weekend of skiing at Tahoe. Last time I joined them, but I'm afraid I'll only be watching this trip. The knees are shot.

Glad to hear you're ensconced at Adidas. A college buddy did that for Gillette. I thought it was a sellout, but he eventually formed his own company and did real well.

I think the i
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I think all the passive tenses use the past participle, but I'm a little foggy right now.

Yes, the verb 'to be' followed by the past participle is passive construction (the subject can follow in the form of a preposition, 'by' as the head).

And yeah, the adidas job is more for the c.v. rather than anything else. And good news for your college buddy-positive sign for me, haha.
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I see them glisten a little, illuminated by the street lights."

Hi again. I think I know why this sentence was recognized as incorrect on Word now.

Do you think it could be because it is a misplaced modify? It isn't overtly clear as to what the past participle phrase is modifiying. 'I' or 'them.'

What do you think?
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Eddie88,
It occured to me you seemed to have possessed the idea that one can arbitrarily pick and choose active or passive voice without logically considering the context. Where are my shoes? Your shoes are being polished - the focus is on the shoe. A machine is polishing his shoes - the focus is on the machine. Besides, a machine can not polish the shoes unless somebody is operating the ma
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Hi,

Um, I didn't write any of these sentences myself, including the first one; I extract them from various sites.

The person who wrote the first sentence said that it came up incorrect on Word. I see nothing wrong with it, other than the possible misplaced modifier. However, I think it is relatively clear that the phrase modifies 'them.'

But if you can see anything wro
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Hi,

Um, I didn't write any of these sentences myself, including the first one; I extract them from various sites.

The person who wrote the first sentence said that it came up incorrect on Word. I see nothing wrong with it, other than the possible misplaced modifier. However, I think it is relatively clear that the phrase modifies 'them.'

But if you can see anything wro
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Eddie88 the past participle phrase is modifiying. 'I' or 'them.'

What do you think?
I can't imagine a native speaker taking it as modifying "I."

I've never used Word. What did it actually say about your sentence? Did it highlight "glisten," or replace it with "glistening," or something like that? I think some of those people at Microsof

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