Question

How does a past participle work as an adjective?
A. Jack drove the car. Drove is a simple past tense.
B. Jack had driven the car. The drive is the past participle.
A participle is a verb that acts as both a verb and an adjective. How is driven describing the car? I'm only using this as an example. Please help me to understand how a past participle acts as an adjective.

Answer 1

Hint: Tense is a language category that expresses the passage of time. Tenses are usually indicated by using specific forms of verbs, notably in their conjugation patterns. The three tenses are Past tense, present tense and future tense.

Complete answer:
A participial adjective is a word used in English grammar to describe an adjective that has the same form as the participle and typically has the same properties as an adjective. A verbal adjective is also known as a deverbal adjective.

The past participle form of the verb cannot work as a finite verb without an auxiliary verb. When a past participle comes without an auxiliary verb, it generally works as an adjective in the sentence.
Example of Past Participle as an adjective:
Sukhesh always wears a broken hairband.
Bheem is the most wanted player on the team.

As given in the question,
Jack had driven the car. (The past participle is driven.)
Explanation: The past participle does not serve as an adjective in this sentence; instead, it serves as a main verb.
Here are some examples of how the past participle can be used as an adjective:
Jack was a driven man who was hell-bent on succeeding.
Through the blown snow, Jack couldn't see the road ahead.
As a trade-in, Jack's well-used car wasn't worth much.

Note: Without an auxiliary verb, the past participle form of the verb cannot act as a finite verb. When a past participle appears in a sentence without an auxiliary verb, it usually functions as an adjective. Past Participles as Adjectives Examples: Joseph always wears a broken hairband.