Past vs Present participle logic (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Past vs Present participle logic
Tags: Verbs/Conjugation
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20 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

Serpent
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Message 17 of 20

20 August 2012 at 11:30pm | IP Logged

I find this usage of "seated" in English really strange.
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outcast
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Message 18 of 20

21 August 2012 at 4:40am | IP Logged

Could you elaborate on that? I mean, maybe I can help.
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Serpent
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Message 19 of 20

21 August 2012 at 11:22am | IP Logged

I don't need help, I just think it's weird to use a passive form of a transitive verb when there's a normal intransitive one. It's also considered incorrect at least by some native speakers, now that I've checked.
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mrwarper
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Message 20 of 20

21 August 2012 at 12:59pm | IP Logged

Heriotza wrote:

...I would say: the present participle is used when describing an ongoing action. The past is used when describing a state.
...

This is exactly the difference between active and passive participle I pointed out before.

Some verbs can't use one or the other because it doesn't make sense, but that's a semantic issue unrelated to grammar. However, with verbs for which both make sense, a difference in meaning may or may not be clear — as our [in]famous Nobel Prize winner Cela stated when he was a senator, "No, 'to be asleep' is not the same thing as 'to be sleeping'..." in his usual potty-mouthed, wise guy style, actually paraphrasing a Restoration era precedent involving the verb 'drink' in the second part. Again, it is more of a semantic issue how clear that difference is.

Edited by mrwarper on 21 August 2012 at 1:02pm

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