The verb please....

[Catherine C.]

What is the verb in the following sentence:

>>>She was surprised that things had changed so much.<<<


Tia,
Catherine

[Casiopea]

In statements, the verb tends to come (directly) after the subject. If the subject is "She", then the verb is . . . "was".

Does that help?

[Catherine C.]

Yes, that is what I thought...I was shocked myself to see the verb listed as "was surprised" in the grammar book of one of my ESL students! In this sentence "shocked" is an adjective, is it not?

Tia

[Tdol]

There's a grey area between the past participle as a passive form and as an adjective. In this sentence, it does seem to be more of an adjective, but you could turn it into an active sentence:
That things had changed so much surprised me.
It's often not so clear, though interpreting it as an adjective makes sense to me.

[Casiopea]

In addition, a good test is replacement:

I was surprised that . . . => I was happy that . . .

Seems as if "surprised" is functioning as an adjective in our example.

[Tdol]

I agree that it's an adjective here, but I can see why some might look at it as a verb, though replacement suggests otherwise.

[Casiopea]

I agree with you, tdol. You've brought up a good point. Mind you, I can't for the life of me figure out the key to the puzzle below, though. What are your thoughts?

[1] It surprised me (causative? i.e., It made me surprised.)
[2] I was surprised by it (causative? i.e., Something made me surprised)

[Tdol]

How about 'it had me surprised', or is that too regional and colloquial?

[Casiopea]

Nice twist, A puzzle, though, it still remains - at least to me.