Teacher Discussion Forums

hereinchina · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 117

"Hello,
Is the word "sadden" a verb or adjective in the following sentences?
1. He was greatly saddened by the death of his only son.
2. I was saddened when I heard about your father’s death.
3. It saddens me to think that we'll never see her again."

Sally Olsen · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 3:59 pm Post subject:

It helps to read some articles on "How to find a verb" on Google. There are pages of them and they all offer different clues on how to find the verb. Once you have found the verb you can determine what parts of speech the others in the sentence are. A dictionary can help a lot.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:02 pm Post subject:

Sentence 3 is clearly a verb ('It'=subject, 'saddens'=verb, transitive, 'me'=object). Sentence 1 contains a clearer [passive] participle than sentence 2, as shown by the sustitutions (of the adjective 'sad') I've added:

1. He was greatly saddened/*sad by the death of his only son.
2. I was saddened/sad when I heard about your father’s death.
(3. It saddens/*sad me to think that we'll never see her again.)

hereinchina · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 117

Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:47 pm Post subject:

You're welcome, HIC! I just thought I'd add an explicitly passive paraphrase (that is, replace the subordinate when-clause containing the repeated subject 'I', instead with a prepositional by-phrase containing an "agent") of sentence 2:

I am/was saddened by (the news of) your father's death.

The active equivalent would be:

(The news of) your father's death saddened/saddens me.