Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

I have a question regarding the grammar in the following two sentences.

1. My friend was worried because of the storm, but there was only a little snow.

2. My friend worried because of the storm, but there was only a little snow.

Only the underlined part is different in the sentences. I'm not sure if one sentence is correct and the other is incorrect. They both seem OK to me, so I think I might be missing something. I hope someone can point that out.

Thanks.

[PRagic]

1. adjective

2. verb

Both are correct, yet have that subtle difference.

[thrylos]

^^ What he said.

I'll guess the most probable intention is to use it as in sentence 1 (adj).

If you meant it as a verb, you'd want to include what the friend worried about, as in My friend worried (about the car tires) to make it clearer.

Both are correct, but quite different in meaning.

[denverdeath]

1. Past passive

2. Simple past

Changing #1 into 'The storm worried my friend...' would be the active voice equivalent.

My opinion anyway.

https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/past-simple-or-past-participle

[10YearsExp]

1. ADJECTIVE (no different than "was angry", "was embarrassed", etc...

2. Simple past

[FMPJ]

In the US at least it's not very idiomatic to use "worry" as an intransitive verb (ie. with no D.O.). It's not wrong, of course, but uncommon enough to be obtrusive in most contexts.

[denverdeath]

Found this after doing some more digging...

"Often the passive structures (to be worried) are still ambiguous, and may also be viewed as adjectives."

https://www.englishforums.com/English/HowWordFunctionsVerbAdjective/pzhgg/amp.htm