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  1. I confuse sometimes.
  2. I get confused sometimes.

I know that the second one is in the passive form but is there any difference in the meaning of these two sentences. Are both grammatically correct?

Similarly,

  1. A door closes.
  2. A door is closed.

In this, I think both are grammatically correct but what is the meaning of the first sentence? help

Spectra
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user55697
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    "I confuse sometimes" is not a sentence that has any meaning at all... You need to have an object... "I confuse [A] with/for [B] sometimes". – Catija May 23 '17 at 19:14

2 Answers2

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The difference is between the active and passive voice.

A door closes.

This is active. The door is the subject, and does the action: it closes.

A door is closed.

This is passive. The door is the object of the action: it is closed (by someone or something). In this case, both are describing the same situation.

Likewise, your other two sentences are fine, but they mean different things. Let's start with the more easily understood one:

I get confused sometimes.

This is passive. I is the object of the action: it gets (confused) sometimes.

I confuse sometimes.

This is active, but it is not a good example. I is the subject, and does the action: it confuses (some other person or audience) sometimes. But a transitive verb requires an object; at least an implied object. To make it more understandable:

I don't always explain things fully. I confuse (others) sometimes.

Davo
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  • @Davo But this time, I trust my dictionary. "confused" is clearly an adjective because it's gradable and can be modified by very – Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini May 24 '17 at 16:17
  • Part of speech is really defined by how the word is used. I heated the water. The conversation became very heated**. – Davo May 24 '17 at 16:22
  • @Davo According to OLD, confuse is a verb, but confused is an adjective. You might also enjoy reading this. – Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini May 24 '17 at 16:45
  • "Confused" can certainly be used an adjective. "Bob is a very confused person." "Confused" can be used as a verb. "Bob confused me when he talked about parts of speech." The question is which it is being used as here. – Jay May 24 '17 at 17:35