encourage

[moris]

Hi.
could you answer my question please?

"Maggie got encouraging/encouraged news from the doctor."

which form is correct?

 

[Rover_KE]

Hi.
Could you answer my question please?

"Maggie got encouraging/encouraged news from the doctor."

Which form is correct?

Start every sentence with a capital letter.

What do you think is the correct form?

 

[moris]

Start every sentence with a capital letter.

What do you think is the correct form?

.
Thank you.
I think the second form is correct because encouraging is an adjective and usually comes after noun, So I think the correct answer is encouraged.

 

[Barb_D]

Most adjectives come before the noun.
A red barn.
A bad day.
Some good news.

Would you like to try again?

 

[Skrej]

.
Thank you.
I think the second form is correct because encouraging is an adjective and usually comes after noun, So I think the correct answer is encouraged.

I think you may be confusing Persian syntax with English syntax. As Barb has mentioned already, the adjective normally comes before the noun in English, even though in Persian it does come after the noun.

 

[Matthew Wai]

... So I think the correct answer is encouraged.

Do you think 'encouraged' refers to 'Maggie', i.e. Maggie got encouraged?

Not a teacher.

 

[moris]

I think you may be confusing Persian syntax with English syntax. As Barb has mentioned already, the adjective normally comes before the noun in English, even though in Persian it does come after the noun.

Most adjectives come before the noun.
A red barn.
A bad day.
Some good news.

Would you like to try again?

Thank you for your comment.
I didn't say all adjectives come after noun, I was talking about encouraging which is an adjective and based on dictionary it doesn't usually come before noun.

Do you think 'encouraged' refers to 'Maggie', i.e. Maggie got encouraged?

Not a teacher.

Thank you for your relevant comment.

 

[Matthew Wai]

it doesn't usually come before noun.

I don't take it to mean that it must not be used before nouns, but I am not a teacher.

 

[Raymott]

"Maggie got encouraging news from the doctor." is the correct sentence.
'Encouraging' can come before the noun. The news was encouraging. The news encouraged Maggie. Maggie found the news encouraging.

You need to study the difference in meaning between adjectives derived from the past participle (encouraged, etc.) and those derived from the present participle (encouraging, etc.). Most follow the same pattern.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think the correct answer is encouraged.

I think it can be used in the following, but I am not a teacher.
'Maggie got encouraged by the news from the doctor.'

 

[Rover_KE]

That's unnatural, Matthew.

 

[Skrej]

Maggie got encouraged by the news from the doctor.'

Perhaps I've misread the chain of comments, but I see nothing unnatural about this sentence.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think the following comment can explain the difference between the two posts above, but I am not a teacher.

There is a wide variation in what native speakers consider natural and unnatural, depending on their nationality, age, social group and regional dialect.

 

[Barb_D]

Perhaps she "was encouraged" but not "got encouraged" as a natural sentence in Matthew's example.

 

[Skrej]

I still have no problem with 'She got encouraged by X."

There are a lot of these got + past participial adjective combinations which sound fine to me. I can't see any difference between 'got encouraged by' and any of the following:

got alarmed by
got excited by
got annoyed by
got inspired by
got overwhelmed by

And so on. They're all commonly used, at least in my part of the country.

 

[tedmc]

Skrej's examples are fine with "got".
But "got encouraged" is slightly off somehow. It just does not sound natural, like saying 'got consoled'.

 

[Raymott]

'Got' here means 'became'. You can become annoyed or angry without any intention on the part of another agent. But encouragement and consolation are usually something that another agent is intending. So 'getting encouraged' leaves out the meaning that someone else is actively encouraging.
I think it's a continuum.