Verbing and Verb-ed modifier denoting tense

Question

Hi,

I have read several post wherein, it is stated that verb-ed modifier denotes past tense and thus affects the intended meaning and several posts wherein it is stated that verb-ed and verb-ing modifier don't denote any tense.

Which one is correct?

gmatophobia · Answer

verb-ed "words" can act as modifiers or can act as verbs. The role is independent.

Consider this sentence -

The car  parked  near the church is mine.

The word 'parked', is a modifier and tells us which car the author is talking about.

Does the use of "parked" means that the car is no longer parked? No! that's incorrect.

In fact, the use of present tense in the sentence tells us that car is still parked. So a modifier simply tells / modifies the noun and does not tell anything about the time frame. That's the role of a verb in the sentence.

Ex. The car parked near the church was towed.

In this sentence "was" is past tense. Hence the sentence conveys the car that was parked near the church was towed.

Ex. The car was parked near the church.

Again, the use of "was parked" tells us the car was parked near the church at some point of time in the past.

Verbing and Verb-ed modifier denoting tense

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