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May I know Which one is grammatical?

The implementation after repairing is now conform to the specification.

The implementation after repairing is now conformed to the specification.

Note to myself: Second one is correct (by StoneyB)

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william007
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2 Answers2

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Conform is one of a large number of English ergative verbs which may be used in either a transitive or intransitive sense—let us call these VERB+T and VERB-T.

The two senses have closely related meanings. With VERB+T, an Agent is depicted as causing a Patient to undergo an action; with VERB-T, the Patient is depicted as being itself the Agent of the action which it undergoes.

The VERB-T usage is similar to the passive voice in that the subject of the verb is the Patient of the action; it is similar to the active voice in that the subject of the verb is also the Agent of the action.

  • Because with VERB-T the action has similarities to both active and passive voice, this usage is sometimes called a middle voice, particularly in languages which have distinct inflections to express it. Some languages which inflect nouns for case express the distinction by casting the subject in the object case when VERB-T is in play. English does not have these inflections, so you have to infer which is meant from the form of the sentence.

One classic example is shave†:

Fred shaved+T John.
Fred shaved-T.  This may also be expressed Fred shaved+T himself.

Another example is cook:

Fred was cooking+T eggs.
Eggs were cooking-T on the stove.

Conform works the same way. In your examples, implementation is the Patient of the action of the verb. If you want to cast implementation as the subject of the sentence may use either conform-T in the active voice or conform+T in the passive voice:

The implementation ... conforms-T to the specification.
The implementation ... is conformed+T to the specification.

But is conform—BE + VERBinfinitive—is simply not a grammatical English construction.

†Recall the famous paradox: The barber shaves every man in town who does not shave himself. Who shaves the barber?

StoneyB on hiatus
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I think both are okay.

The implementation after repairing is now conform to the specification.

The implementation after repairing is now conformed to the specification.

Note that WordWeb describes conform to and conform both as verbs.

Maulik V
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    The first doesn't work: BE + infinitive is not a grammatical English construction. You may say The implementation now conforms* to the specification, employing the intransitive sense of the verb. – StoneyB on hiatus Mar 15 '14 at 15:24
  • @stoney I provided the link. The whole phrase is stated as a verb. In my last sentence I already clarified it. – Maulik V Mar 16 '14 at 06:21
  • I'm talking about the collocation is now conform to. You can say is now conformED or is now conformING (except we'd never say that with a stative verb) or now conformS, but you can't say is now conform. – StoneyB on hiatus Mar 16 '14 at 12:53
  • @StoneyB The old term was something different but it is now referred to* as ....* is wrong? Also, please note that conform to (with to) is a verb phrase as described in WordWeb. – Maulik V Mar 16 '14 at 13:00
  • Is now referred to is fine; it uses the past participle with -ed to form a passive. Is now conformED to would too, but is now conform to does not. The role of to doesn't affect that. – StoneyB on hiatus Mar 16 '14 at 13:04