my watch Is broken or has broken?

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Awence
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Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:13 pm
Location: Malaysia

my watch Is broken or has broken?

Post by Awence »

Helo....i m wondering who can help me with these..


1. The watch is broken or the watch has broken and why so?


2. My student asked me on one day, "why the answer is : What happened? and not What was happened?"
Could anyone please shed some lights on how to explain to my student?

Thanks alot.......
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Micawber
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Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:54 am
Location: Yokohama

Post by Micawber »

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1-- Usually we use 'is broken' to indicate the present condition of the unfortunate timepiece; occasionally, one might wish to say 'has broken' to indicate one's immediate shocked discovery of the accident at a trying moment requiring its use.

2-- 'Happen' is an intransitive verb just like 'occur' or 'sleep'. It does not normally take passive voice or form a predicate adjective.
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Tharos
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Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:54 pm
Location: Okinawa

Post by Tharos »

The watch is broken or the watch has broken and why so?

is - verb and auxiliary verb, present singular 3rd person of be.

has - verb and auxiliary verb, present singular 3rd person of have.

broken is the past participle of the irregular verb break.

The English Present Perfect tense is used to express actions which have already been completed, or perfected, at the time of speaking or writing.

The Present Perfect tense of any English verb is formed from the Simple Present of the auxiliary to have, followed by what is generally referred to as the past participle of the verb.

The watch is broke.
The watch has broken.

What happened? and not What was happened?"
Both are correct.

The past participle of a regular English verb is formed by adding the ending ed to the bare infinitive of the verb. In this case the verb is "happen." Happen is an intransitive verb, so it needs no object.

What happened? is simple past tense.
What has happened? is the present perfect tense.

The reason for "What happened?" being the correct answer in your student's specific case may be related to the answer needing to be in past tense rather than present perfect tense.
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