English Language & Usage Asked on June 2, 2021
Please consider this example of three sentences in sequence:
What kind of verb phrase is it when I follow is with yet another
inflected verb, and why do we call it that?
I think it’s still present tense but I can’t figure out how is
can be used with a past-tense verb. I know that is is the verb,
and thus it is present tense, but what would destroyed be? An
adjective?
Also, based on the first two sentences’ pattern,
shouldn’t the third sentence use broke not broken so that
it is also in the past tense just like destroyed and removed
had been?
John Lawler in a comment wrote:
These three sentences, in context with one another, are examples of the Passive construction, which uses a form of be followed by the past participle (not the past form) of the verb. Someone destroys the building. Then someone removes the rubble. Someone ships the rubble to a landfill. All these sentences are active, but they can be transformed into the passive sentences above.
Answered by tchrist on June 2, 2021
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