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This caused the construction of gigantic buildings where too large masses of human beings are crowded together

In the attributive clause after 'where' above, is 'crowded' the past participal of the action verb 'crowd' (i.e., a passive tense) or is it an adjective to describe the state of human beings?

I tend to think it is a passive tense to stress the action as people do not have any active roles in the context of the article (i.e., the impact of industralizaiton on our society).

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  • It depends on how you interpret it. It could be either. But since it comes after are, it's more likely (although not certainly) used in an adjectival rather than verbal sense.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented May 10, 2019 at 16:19
  • Thanks for your reply, Jason. Does the word together at the end of the sentence allude to a kind of manner for the action crowd?
    – Charlie
    Commented May 10, 2019 at 17:36
  • Crowded together is both a kind of idiom and a form of redundancy. If the people are crowded it doesn't make sense that they could be anything other than crowded together. However, we normally use the two words as a phrase despite that. But together will pair with both the adjectival and verbal sense of crowded. So, it's not that word that determines the difference.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented May 10, 2019 at 17:41
  • Got you, Jason. If you were an English teacher, how would you explain this sentence to a student gramatically?
    – Charlie
    Commented May 10, 2019 at 18:10
  • I would simply say, "By using that sentence, are you describing the current state of the crowd (in which case crowded is being used adjectivally) or the action that was taken?" Another way of looking at it is this: "If you add now in front of crowded does it change what you want to express?" If it does, then you'd meant crowded to be taken as a verb.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented May 10, 2019 at 20:17

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