Timeline for What is the tense of the following sentence? "They are married"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 21, 2017 at 7:28 | vote | accept | Shannak | ||
| Jan 19, 2017 at 20:19 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @Shannak Your first were married is a passive, past tense, your second is a predication (BE + predicate complement), past tense. | |
| Jan 19, 2017 at 8:55 | comment | added | Shannak | @StoneyB could you help me with these: “They were married by the priest" and “They were married and happy.” can we use your description with these two sentences? | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 23:49 | comment | added | verbose | @StoneyB I'm not sure your footnote clarifies matters. The parson married John and Susan yesterday is active voice, after all. My father-in-law is a priest, and my mother-in-law once informed me that he had married his godchild the previous week. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 19:10 | comment | added | Lambie | @StoneyB Never mind. My main point was not that. I felt you were using an incorrect example to explain this usage. I just think my explanation is simple and does not entail: my keys were lost, where lost is a passive verb, and I gave several examples of similar uses where there is not the possibility of reading the verb as a passive. It annoys me that people downvote (I am not saying it was you) when they really are clueless about grammar. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 18:56 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @Lambie No; but Jack and Susan are married as a consequence of being married by the parson. I have added a footnote to make this clear. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 18:54 | history | edited | StoneyB on hiatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 394 characters in body
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| Jan 18, 2017 at 18:47 | comment | added | Lambie | My keys were lost yesterday (by me) is a passive verb. They are married describes a condition. I lost my keys, my keys were lost. BUT NOT: I married him, he was married by me. To be plus a past participle describes a condition. It is not an action verb as in I lost my keys yesterday. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 18:24 | history | answered | StoneyB on hiatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |