Sentence Correction

Question

Hello Mike,
I have been unable to distinguish clearly between past tense verb and past participle verb. Do every time need to go with context or there is any other way?

Please help

Neha

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Neha, The different lies in the auxiliary verb, a.k.a. the "helping" verb. The book was written in the 1950s. = full verb " was written " The book, written in the 1950s, brought acclaim to its author . = participle " written ;" the full verb " brought " is the main verb of the sentence. The difference between a participle and a full verb is usually an auxiliary verb. The auxiliary verbs are very important in English. Here's a blog that discusses some auxiliary verbs. https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/auxiliary- ... -the-gmat/ Each tense (present perfect, past perfect, etc.) has its own characteristic auxiliary verbs. You don't understand the tense until you understand precisely what auxiliary verbs it requires. The ordinary past tense, in the active voice, doesn't take an auxiliary verb. For regular verbs, this is simply the "-ed" form of the verb, and the past form of irregular verbs. I rented a room. I bought a book. I loved a movie. Notice, these are all ACTIVE. If we wanted to make them PASSIVE, we would need the " was/were " auxiliary verb. The room was rented . All the books were bought . The movie was loved by all. If it has no auxiliary verb and PASSIVE meaning, then it's the participle, not a verb. Also, there's be another full verb somewhere in the sentence. The room, rented in December, has a view of the ocean. The book, bought from a remainder table, was a rare first edition. The movie, loved by audiences everywhere, was panned by the critics. In all three of those sentences, the participle form is passive. The past participle is always passive. That's a HUGE clue: active or passive usage. The past tense verb, by itself, is active. The past participle is passive. Does all this make sense? Are there any particular sentences you are finding confusing? Mike :-)

neha338 · Answer

I have got your point.
Could we say auxiliary verbs itself tell us tenses; so participle verbs add only extra information. At other places it is used as adjective -- passive form. I have some problem in differentiating between the two in inverted sentences. Your reply says reading the whole sentence itself will avoid ambiguity. Would you please provide some link for inverted sentences?

I liked your prompt reply.

Neha

mikemcgarry · Answer

Neha, It's true that auxiliary verbs often give important clues about the tense; the main very of course contains the meaning, which is extremely important on the GMAT SC. On the GMAT SC, you ALWAYS have to get the meaning from reading the full sentence. Inverted sentences are not terribly common on the GMAT, so at the moment, we don't have a blog about them. If there are any in particular you would like discussed, please post them and cite the source. Mike :-)

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