ED FORMS - Verbs or Modifiers

Hi Debayan,

A verb-ed word will be either a verb or a verb-ed modifier. If it is a verb, it will certainly have a Subject or some doer (if the sentence does not have any grammatical error). If it is not a verb, then the verb-ed word has to be a modifier.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Identify whether the underlined words are verbs or verb-ed modifiers.

1. Like birds today, Archaeopteryx had feathers that were fully formed.
Formed = simple past tense verb. In the relative pronoun clause, “that” is the subject that stands for “feathers” and the verb for this subject is “were formed”.

2. Our powers of color vision are derived from cells in our eyes called cones, three types in all, each triggered by different wavelengths of light.
Called & triggered = verb-ed modifier
Litmus Test: Did the “eyes” do the action of calling? No. Hence, it’s a modifier.
Did “each” do the job of triggering? No. Different wavelengths of light did that job. Hence, “triggered” is the modifier.

3. As Joel Bregman hoped, dozens of young stars turned up in each of the three dead galaxies—and as an added surprise, they even appeared in Messier 105.
Hoped, turned & appeared = simple past tense verbs for subjects “Joel Bregman”, “dozens of young stars” and “they” respectively.
Added = modifier that modifies “surprise”.

4. Dark matter might actually be produced at the energies explored by the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Explored = verb-ed modifier
Litmus Test: Will “the energies” do the job of exploring? No. The world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider might do that action. Hence, “explored” is the modifier.

5. A leader guided by sound principles earned immense respect from the masses.
Guided = verb-ed modifier, earned = simple past tense verb for the subject “A leader”.
Litmus Test: Did a leader do the action of guiding? In this context, no. “Sound principles” guided “a leader”. Hence, guided is the modifier.

6. A company founded on sound business principles achieves much higher success.
Founded = verb-ed modifier
Litmus Test: Did a company do the action of founding? In this context no. May be the founder of the company did that job. Hence, founded is the verb-ed modifier.

7. The lamp decorated with stars filled the child’s room with innocent beauty.
Decorated = verb-ed modifier, filled = simple past tense verb for the subject “The lamp”.
Litmus Test: Did the lamp do the action of decorating. No. Hence, it is the modifier.

Correct these sentences if you feel they are incorrect.

1. The lamp decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty. = Incorrect
Correct = The lamp that decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty.

2. A leader guided his followers earned immense respect from the masses. = Incorrect
Correct = A leader who guided his followers earned immense respect from the masses.

Sam was cheated by his brother.

According to the litnus test given above, In this sentence cheated is ed-modifier or simple past?

Hi E-Gmat/Shraddha,

The below sentence is from your article on Verb-ed modifiers. The correct answer is the same as the sentence given below. After going through Verb-ing modifier concept on E-GMAT, I understand that Verb-ing modifier modifies the preceding noun. However, in the below sentence, that rule is getting violated. Please help me understand this.


Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

Thanks,
Knuckledown

B IS THE ANSWER IS THT TRUE.PLZ LET ME KNOW

The increased popularity and availability of televisions has led to the decline of regional dialects, language
variations which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated by geographic isolation.

'Language variations...' is an absolute phrase. 'which...' and 'perpetuated..' tell us more about language variation. To check whether 'perpetuated' is a ver-ed modifier or verb? We should ask the question, Did 'language variations' do the action of perpetuation? No. 'Perpetuating was done by geographical locations. Thus 'perpetuated' is a verd-ed modifier. As there is an 'and' parallel marker, parallelism needs to be maintained. A phrase and a cluase can be parallel. 'Originated' is a verb. Usage of 'perpetuating' is also incorrect as language variations are not doing the action of 'perpetuating'. Thus D is the right answer.

A. which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated-Incorrect parallelism
B. that originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated-Incorrect parallelism
C. originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated-Verb and Verb-ed can't be parallel
D. originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated-Correct
E. originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuating-'originating' is correct whereas 'perpetuating' is not

@Shraddha: I face a problem when dealing with this type of questions. I get bit engrossed in deciding whether (for eg) did 'language variations' do the action of 'originating'?. Is there any other simple manner to check whether the given ED verb is verb-ed modifier or a verb? Any help is deeply appreciated.

Regards,
Heman2727

Hi Debayan,

A verb-ed word will be either a verb or a verb-ed modifier. If it is a verb, it will certainly have a Subject or some doer (if the sentence does not have any grammatical error). If it is not a verb, then the verb-ed word has to be a modifier.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi Heman2727,

Very good analysis I must say. You have explained the usage of "perpetuated" and "perpetuating" pretty nicely. Keep up the good job of doing such a thorough analysis.

I would juts like to add a bit to your analysis. In choice A, usage of "perpetuated" is certainly incorrect. As you said that the "which = language variations" did the job of originating while geographic isolation did the action of perpetuating. This error can be corrected by turning "perpetuated" into a verb also. We need to add "are" before perpetuated to do so.

Now "which" will have two verbs "originate" and "are perpetuated". These entities are also correct.
So we see there can be multiple ways to correct an incorrect sentence.

Also, the easiest way to find out whether an ED word is a simple past tense verb or a verb-ed modifier is to find out whether the subject is the doer of that action or not. This will become a natural process once you have practiced well. You are already pretty good at this as I can see from your analysis.

Thanks.
Shraddha

Hello Shraddha,

I am curious to know what is the Verb for "Giant Fungus" in the above sentence. Starting "that......" is a clause and "spawned" and "extending" are Verbed and Verbing so where is the main verb for Giant Fungus?

Thanks,
Saurav

Hello Shraddha,

Heman has already provided a very detailed explanation to the question, I would still like to know how "originated" is the verb here. My thought process is how can language variation (l.v) originate itself and apparently, its evident in the question stem that l.v originated from diverse.......".

Your advice will be highly solicited!

Thanks,
Saurav

Hi Shraddha,

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

in above sentence (our basic sentence) why spawned is not modifying tentacles ? how it is modifying giant fungus?

Great question Himanshu. Actually you have brought up a verb - originate - that has two possible meanings.
Meaning 1 - to create
Example 1 - Newton originated the idea of Gravitation
Meaning 2 - to come into being
Example 2 - The idea of gravitation originated from the discovery of a falling apple.

So as you can see the two meanings are pretty related to each other. In fact you can write the second example sentence in passive voice (using meaning 1 of the verb) as follows:

Example 3 - The idea of gravitation was originated by Newton when he discovered the falling apple.
Abbreviated Example 3 - The idea of gravitation was originated by Newton when he discovered the falling apple. INCORRECT
In this case the word "originated" is a verb-ed modifier. It is not a verb in past tense. In order to act as verb it needs "was".

Hope this helps with your doubt. Once again, great doubt!

Regards,
Payal