Need help on Parts of Speech, teachers. Thanks v. much! ^o^

The citizens do not like the policy proposed by the government, they opposed it strongly and voices of opposition is heard everywhere.

Is the word "opposed" used in the sentence above in the form of an adjective or verb? Please advise, teachers! Thanks ^o^

[RonBee]

The word opposed is a verb. If the people opposed something that probably means they spoke out against it or otherwise tried to defeat it.

:)

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by Helped Wanted

The citizens do not like the policy proposed by the government; they opposed it strongly and voices of opposition are heard everywhere.

Is the word "opposed" used in the sentence above in the form of an adjective or verb? Please advise, teachers! Thanks ^o^

As Ronbee mentions, it's a verb, in the past tense (-ed). Some words ending in -ed function as adjectives, but in those cases, the adjective usually comes after the verb, like this,

They built a weathered house. (verb = built, adjective = weathered).

In the example sentence you provided, though, the -ed word does not come after a verb:

They opposed it strongly. (verb =opposed)

'opposed' is the verb. We also know this because 'opposed' comes after the subject 'They'.

They (Subject)
opposed (Verb)
it (Object)
strongly (Adverb).

Here's a trick to tell whether an -ed word is a verb. Ask the question "What did they do to it?"

They opposed it.
QUESTION: What did they do to it?
ANSWER: They opposed it? (verb)

They built a weathered house.
QUESTION: What did they do to it?
Answer: They built it. ('built' is the verb; 'weathered' is not the verb.)

All the best,

Thanks to both teacher Ronbee and Casiopea! ^o^ However, if it's a verb, why do we need "ed" at the end of the word when the sentence begins with:

The citizens do not like......
Please advise again, thanks teachers ^o^

[Tdol]

Presumably the opposition is a past event, but the dislike continues. Maybe they had a meeting.

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by Helped Wanted

Thanks to both teacher Ronbee and Casiopea! ^o^ However, if it's a verb, why do we need "ed" at the end of the word when the sentence begins with:

The citizens do not like......
Please advise again, thanks teachers ^o^

If you think that sentence should probably have been written differently, then I agree with you. After all, if the citizens do not like the policy then their opposition is an ongoing thing and not part of a past event. Thus, instead of:

• The citizens do not like the policy proposed by the government, they opposed it strongly and voices of opposition is heard everywhere.

it should be:

• The citizens do not like the policy proposed by the government; they oppose it strongly and voices of opposition are heard everywhere.

The word oppose is not generally used to indicate a specific action, but instead it indicates a specific attitude.

:)

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by Helped Wanted

Thanks to both teacher Ronbee and Casiopea! ^o^ However, if it's a verb, why do we need "ed" at the end of the word when the sentence begins with:

The citizens do not like......
Please advise again, thanks teachers ^o^

But, the sentence begins with "They". There are two sentences:

The citizens do not like the policy proposed by the government. They opposed it strongly and voices of opposition is heard everywhere.

There is a problem with the original sentence:

The citizens do not like the policy proposed by the government, they opposed it strongly and voices of opposition is heard everywhere.

There shouldn't be a comma (,) after the word 'government'. There should be a period (.) or a semi-colon (;).

All the best,

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Helped Wanted

The citizens do not like the policy proposed by the government, they opposed it strongly and voices of opposition is heard everywhere.

Is the word "opposed" used in the sentence above in the form of an adjective or verb? Please advise, teachers! Thanks ^o^

Although I have seen it corrected, I didn't see anyone mention that "voices" is plural and requires a plural verb: voices of opposition are/were heard everywhere.

Once again, many many thanks to teacher Ronbee, teacher Tdol, teacher Casiopea and teacher MikeNewYork for helping Help Wanted! ^o^

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Helped Wanted

Once again, many many thanks to teacher Ronbee, teacher Tdol, teacher Casiopea and teacher MikeNewYork for helping Help Wanted! ^o^

We are all happy to be of help. :wink: