Broken as present tense

Share on Facebook

Guest

#9550 Wed, 01 Oct 03 12:39 AM

Can you give me an example of broken as a present tense?

Guest

whl626

#9557 Wed, 01 Oct 03 06:58 AM

" Broken " is past participle of break.

I have never come across that it can be used as present tense.

whl626

Joined on Sun, Aug 24 2003

Regular Member (882)

Learn English every day

maj

#9560 Wed, 01 Oct 03 08:23 AM

You can use broken to describe a marriage that has ended in divorce. (Sometimes it implies this is sad or a bad thing)

e.g. He spoke for the first time about the traumas of a broken marriage.
e.g. Children from broken homes are more likely to leave home before the age of 18.

maj

Joined on Mon, Mar 31 2003

Senior Member (4,756)

Marriage

Raul

#9618 Wed, 01 Oct 03 07:32 PM

In this case, "broken" is an adjective which has several meanings. For example:

a broken pot (broken = fractured; smashed)
a broken set of books (broken = incomplete, fragmentary)
broken sunshine (broken = intermittent, discontinuous)
a broken radio (broken = not functioning)

... and so on. This is the only case "broken" can be *used* in the present tense.

Raul

Joined on Mon, Sep 1 2003

Lima - Peru

Full Member (221)

"I touch the future: I teach"

Present tenses, Tenses

blndestngr

#9928 Sun, 05 Oct 03 03:20 AM

what about:

"my relationship is tense at the moment, my heart is broken since my spouse cheated on me"

blndestngr

Joined on Sun, Oct 5 2003

New Member (05)

Tenses

Raul

#10040 Mon, 06 Oct 03 11:41 PM

It's just the same thing: broken is used as an adjective. I didn't use any example of this kind because everybody knows what a broken heart feels like. Wink [;)]

Raul

moijelesuis

#10243 Wed, 08 Oct 03 06:07 PM

and adjective or not, it is still a reductive past participle.

the broken pot is on the shelf - also means, the pot that has been broken (in the past) is on the shelf (now, presently)

moijelesuis

Joined on Sat, Aug 16 2003

usa/canada

Full Member (116)