Passive Voice Or Past Participle Adjective?

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In "He is happy," "happy" is clearly an adjective. How about the the past participle in each of the following sentences? Is it an adjective or is it a verb in the passive voice?

1. She was surprised.

2. He is depressed.

3. They are excited.


I teach adult ESL.

Thank you very much!



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BuildMyEnglishIn "He is happy," "happy" is clearly an adjective. How about the the past participle in each of the following sentences? Is it an adjective or is it a verb in the passive voice?

In the absence of further context, we instinctively take all three to be adjectives (derived from verbs, of course).

The discussion at Passive voice vs Adjective has a section that gives tests for participle-adjectives.

In my opinion the only example you've given that might be considered passive voice (in the proper context) is the one with 'was surprised', because one person can surprise another, i.e., take them by surprise.

Lady Hertford was surprised by a visit from Mrs Knight last week.
I was surprised by a totally unexpected letter from the French ambassador.
One explanation of the military defeat suggests that the advancing column was surprised by the Welsh.
Perhaps the builder was surprised by the husband. After all, the wife wouldn't have told. Would she?
Early one morning he was surprised by a booming voice.

CJ

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Hi CJ,

Thank you for your great response (including the link).

Here are my two main insights from it:

1. The choice of passive voice or adjective depends on the context.

2. To be considered passive voice, the subject should be the receiver of some action. This would seem to eliminate most uses what seems like the passive voice in the present tense and make them adjectives.

Do these seem right to you?


Richard

BuildMyEnglish

Hi CJ,

Thank you for your great response (including the link).

Here are my two main insights from it:

1. The choice of passive voice or adjective depends on the context.

2. To be considered passive voice, the subject should be the receiver of some action. This would seem to eliminate most uses what seems like the passive voice in the present tense and make them adjectives.

Do these seem right to you?


Richard

Yes, that does seem right.

CJ

An adjective can be intesified using the word 'very'. A verb cannot. You can say 'he is very interested', but you can't say 'he was very killed'. Thus, a simple test to this question is to insert 'very'. In all cases above, this can be done, so they are all adjectives, not passive voice.

Students: We have free audio pronunciation exercises.
anonymous In all cases above, this can be done, so they are all adjectives, not passive voice.

You can't say that. It depends on context for "surprised". The "very" test is a good one, but it is only good if you take context into account.

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