2

The bridge is built over the Charles River.

Can some one explain the tense of "is built"?

The bridge was built over the Charles River.

I think this is passive. If not, can some one describe the tense of "was built"?

Thank you!

Kay
  • 29
  • 2
    Well those sentences are in the passive voice. the first is simple present tense and the second is simple past. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 03 '15 at 22:22
  • 1
    @chasly. those are not passive. if you think they are, make them into active sentences. in fact there is no object, so they cannot be passive. – Octopus Nov 03 '15 at 23:08
  • @Octopus: You want active? No problem. The bridge builded itself over the Charles River back in Hadrian's time. – Ricky Nov 03 '15 at 23:12
  • @Ricky - The bridge built itself... – Hot Licks Nov 03 '15 at 23:14
  • Are you kidding? Those sentences are passive. (Somebody/People/Workers) built the bridge over the Charles River. -> The bridge was built over the Charles River (by Someone/Someone/Workers). – Grizzly Nov 03 '15 at 23:14
  • Active: someone built a bridge over the Charles River. – Hot Licks Nov 03 '15 at 23:15
  • 2
    @Octopus - "The bridge was built over the Charles River [by John]." "John built the bridge over the Charles River." Absolutely standard passive/active conversion. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 03 '15 at 23:16
  • @chasly, fair enough, I was wrong. – Octopus Nov 03 '15 at 23:28
  • Kay. Your question has caused some confusion and some disagreement. This is for the classic reason that you provided no context. English is highly dependent on context. If you do not provide it then people will invent their own and the answers will become confused and confusing. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 03 '15 at 23:38
  • @HotLicks - I protest "builded" is funnier. – Ricky Nov 04 '15 at 02:43

4 Answers4

3

Perhaps if I give you an example of is built and was built you will be better able to understand.

Tower Bridge is built over the River Thames.

Tower Bridge was built over the River Thames between 1886 and 1895

The first states the present position, with the past participle built used as a complement.

The second tells you something that happened in the past, with the past participle used as part of the passive voice.

WS2
  • 64,657
1
  1. The way a bridge is built is as follows: [...]
  2. That bridge was built over the Charles River in 1889.
  3. Bridges have been built over the Charles River to make it easier for pedestrians to cross over.
  4. New bridges will be built over the Charles River to make it even easier for pedestrians and trains to cross over it.
  5. A number of new bridges will have been built over the Charles River by the end of the decade to make it easier for everybody to cross over.
Ricky
  • 20,450
0

The bridge is built over the Charles River.
The bridge was built over the Charles River.

Both of these sentences use the passive voice. The first is present simple and the second is past simple. The curious thing to me is that both may be used to describe an old bridge, albeit with different meanings.

The bridge is built over the Charles River. In this version 'built' has the sense of 'constructed'. So it may be used to describe an old bridge because, though made in the past, the bridge remains, to this day, constructed over the Charles River.

The bridge was built over the Charles River. In this version 'built' refers to the process of making the bridge - the building of the bridge - which happened in the past.

Dan
  • 17,948
-1

Both of your sentences use past participles as participial adjectives. The word built is the past participle and it is being used after the verb to be (which itself is in either past or present form) as an adjective. The sentence ends with the preposition "over the Charles River."

For more info see point no. 3 here.

Specifically that page states:

English verbs have five basic forms: the base, - S, -ing, past, and past participle forms.

The past participles for regular verbs are the same as their past forms (look-looked-looked and study-studied-studied), for example. For irregular verbs, the past and past participle forms are different (for example, be- was/were-been and go-went-gone).

The past participle is commonly used in several situations:

and for point no.3 it uses for examples (among others):

  • It is/was broken into two pieces.
  • It is/was gone from where I usually put it.
  • It is/was done by machine, not by hand.

similar structure to:

  • It is/was built over the Charles River.
Octopus
  • 881
  • 1
  • A man was killed today (passive). By whom? We don't know. All we know is that somebody killed a man today (active) 2) A bridge was built last year (passive) ... You are probably thinking when a participle acts like an adjective e.g. A newly-built bridge
    • – Mari-Lou A Nov 03 '15 at 23:26
  • It may be passive, but that does not invalidate this as an accurate answer as well. – Octopus Nov 03 '15 at 23:55
  • Not my downvote by the way – Mari-Lou A Nov 04 '15 at 00:17
  • @Mari-Lou, is to bore not a verb? Yes, it is a participial adjective. – Octopus Nov 04 '15 at 00:25
  • Yes, to bore is a verb. You're right. My comments were mainly referring to your now deleted comments concerning the lack of direct object in the OP's examples, and your comment at Dan's answer, which is also deleted. – Mari-Lou A Nov 04 '15 at 00:26