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Starving or starved. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Akatsuki Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6296 days ago 226 posts - 236 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English Studies: Norwegian | Message 1 of 8 21 August 2009 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a doubt about the usage of the verb starve. I've seen both being used in the same context but I cannot tell the difference nor tell when to use which. I know starving is the present participle and starved is the simple past but if we take this sentence as an example: Can we have dinner? I'm starving. / Can we have dinner? I'm starved.
In this case which one is the most correct? And when can one use either verb ending? Thanks in advance. Edited by Akatsuki on 21 August 2009 at 9:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aeroflot Senior Member United States Joined 5600 days ago 102 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 8 21 August 2009 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Starving sounds like it's more correct, but both are used equally.
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6009 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 3 of 8 21 August 2009 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | ||
General rule of thumb: if you see two common variations, they're both correct. There's no such thing as "more correct", but there may be such a thing as "more common". If you want to know what's more common, search. Google the web, search in Project Gutenberg e-texts, or search in a representative corpus, like the professionals do. http://corpus.byu.edu/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| drfeelgood17 Bilingual Hexaglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6447 days ago 98 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English*, Tagalog*, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Japanese, Latin, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 8 21 August 2009 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||
In the context of the sentence you've just used, both are possible and common, at least in British English, although "starving" is probably more common."Starved" simply puts a little more emphasis on starvation as a state, rather than an ongoing event, so it functions like an adjective. But then again present participles also frequently behave like adjectives, so there really isn't that much difference. By analogy, we also say "I'm famished" as an alternative to "I'm starving" or "I'm very hungry". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6083 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 5 of 8 21 August 2009 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Aeroflot and Cainntear are right. We use both the same way and you can use them interchangeably.
Just the same, this has me thinking...(By the way I get questions like this from foreign speakers regarding our progressive forms so that's why I'm nit-picking ^^) If you ask me, "I'm starving" means that you're in midst of the action. "Starved" means the hunger started some time ago and the result is this uncomfortable state you're in. "starving" carries a bit more empahsis or emotion than the other form. Akatsuki, you asked when to use either verb ending. There's grammar and there's usage. Sometimes we ourselves don't know why we favor one for the other. I think this is the case with "starved" "starving". It doesn't really matter. however, there are times when the ending does make a difference: We reached the lake just as the sun was setting (The sun hasn't set yet) We reached the lake just as the sun set (sun's gone already) Hope that helps (^_^) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5667 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 8 21 August 2009 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am certainly not a linguist, but I believe both are valid and the difference is simply that the first form (I am starving) is in the active voice and the second (I am starved) is in the passive voice. Edited by Splog on 21 August 2009 at 11:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PaulH3 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5577 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 7 of 8 22 August 2009 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Perhaps that's why "starving" sounds more natural, because "starve" is more often used as an intransitive verb. The passive voice implies a transitive verb.
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| Akatsuki Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6296 days ago 226 posts - 236 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English Studies: Norwegian | Message 8 of 8 22 August 2009 at 1:30am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, your comments were really helpful!
Cainntear, thanks for the link. And Sunja, yes I get your explanation and that's how I was thinking about starving / starved; thanks, really helped. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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