Past Participle with Verb - Check my work
Directions are to: "Lea cada oración y reescríbula usand wl participio de pasado del verbo."
MODELO: Escribí la carta anoche ---> La carta está escrita.
My answers are in parentheses:
1- El gobierno explicó las soluciones. (Las soluciones estaban explicados.)
2- El conductor cubrió la batería. (La batería está cubierta.)
3-El impacto rompió el parabrisas. (El parabrisas está roto.) This one threw me off because of the "el", but plural feminine ending.
4- El policía resolvió la disputa. (La disputa está resuelta.)
5.- El mecáanico arregló los frenos. (Los frenos estaban arreglados.)
Any feedback appreciated! Gracias!!!
6 Answers
Yes, you could either use "está" or "estaba"! The example in your book is absolutely correct but it means "All of the fish WERE covered in oil." If you wanted to say they ARE covered in oil, you would have to use "está." So really, both are correct, they just carry different meanings. My guess is that it won't be a big deal on your homework whether you use present or past tense, just so long as you use the correct past participle.
This is interesting. All of Stephen's answers seem correct, in that they use ser to construct sentences in the passive voice, as it is often constructed in written Spanish, in newspaper articles and the like especially.
However, I think it is also true that all of the past participles used in the examples of Sylvo's assignment can be used strictly as adjectives, in which case their combination with estar would also be correct. This is especially true if you omit the agency of action, for instance when you say "Los frenos están arreglados" as opposed to "Los frenos fueron arreglados por el mecánico".
As I take small step forwards in Spanish I keep encountering situations where I am not sure. This is one of the reasons I find this site so interesting and helpful; these questions can be clarified. I look forward to reading a response about this.
J
Sylvo,
When your book says you must use either "está" or "estaban" in these cases, it is incorrect. You can use either present or imperfect, but you can also use any number of people as the subject, for example:
Estoy (o soy, en este caso) casodo.
Also, when you get to the subjunctive mood, there are situations where the subjunctive present or past could be used as well for estar + pp used as adjective.
Maybe the book is oversimplifying to make a point. Don't worry about it, roll with it! Before too long you'll have learned a great deal, I can see you are a good Spanish student.
J
Thank you for your feedback, Sofia. I'm still bothered though because our book says that past participle used with "estar" is either "está" or "estaban". For instance, the plural example in the book is:
"Todos los peces estaban cubiertos de crudo."
I dunno... I'm stumped!
Good job! The last person who posted is using passive voice with an agent which you haven't really learned yet, so while his/her answers are grammatically correct, ignore them for this assignment.
I picked out two errors: If you notice in the modelo, the first sentence is in the past tense and the part where the student would switch the sentence up is in PRESENT TENSE with the "está". You followed the modelo for each answer except #1 and #5 where you used "estaban" instead of "están." Does that make sense? So rather than "Las soluciones estaban explicados" in #1, it should be: "Las soluciones ESTAN explicados." And just change the "estaban" in #5 to están also. Hope this helps!
1- El gobierno explicó las soluciones. (Las soluciones fueron explicadas por el gobierno.)
2- El conductor cubrió la batería. (La batería fue cubierta por el conductor.)
3-El impacto rompió el parabrisas. (El parabrisas fue roto por el impacto.)
4- El policía resolvió la disputa. (La disputa fue resuelta por el policía .)
5.- El mecánico arregló los frenos. (Los frenos fueron arreglados por el mecánico.)
