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Please arrive by seven o'clock tomorrow morning, dressed in comfortable clothes.

People dress in comfortable clothes. The action of dressing for people to clothes is active. Why is the Non-finite verb in the past participle?

Eddie Kal
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rann rann
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    As D.V.Thai says, "dressed" is an adjective here, not a verb. It denotes a state, not an action. – BillJ Sep 20 '21 at 07:18

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"dressed" here is an adjective, not a verb. "dressed in comfortable clothes" talks about a state you should be in at that time, not an action.

Read more here USING -ED AND -ING TO MAKE AN ADJECTIVE

Eddie Kal
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Thai D. V.
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  • I have a question. what does an adjective phrase "dressed in comfortable clothes" modify? – bak1936 Sep 20 '21 at 04:28
  • @bak1936 these are "understood you", "imperative" sentences. The subject is "you" the listener. – Thai D. V. Sep 20 '21 at 04:53
  • @bak1936 It's called a 'predicative adjunct': predicative because it refers to a predicand, in this case the understood subject "you", and an adjunct because it's a modifier in clause structure (as opposed to NP structure). In very simple terms, you could say it modifies the verb "arrive". – BillJ Sep 20 '21 at 07:11
  • @bak1936 Further, the AdjP is more precisely a 'depictive adjunct' because it gives descriptive information about the understood subject "you". – BillJ Sep 20 '21 at 07:33
  • @BillJ thanks. Can i make a sentence like this? Arrive dressed in comfortable clothes. So a predicative adjunct modifies a verb"arrive", and is dependent of verb "arrive".? – bak1936 Sep 20 '21 at 09:48
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    @bak1936 Yes, your are right. Note that the adjunct "dressed in comfortable clothes" is predicative because it refers to the implied subject "you". – BillJ Sep 20 '21 at 15:11
  • @BillJ one final question! an ajunct is optional as opposed to a complement. In English site, I saw a predicative adjunct is a predicative complement. I don't know why they treat them as same.?and I think an adjective phrase above is essential. can you tell me why you express like that. – bak1936 Sep 21 '21 at 03:02
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    @bak1936 "Dressed in comfortable clothes" is an optional element, and thus an adjunct, not a complement. A predicative complement is an obligatory element, as in Ed is a teacher / Kim is very nice, where "a teacher" and "very nice" are complements because if they are dropped the sentences become ungrammatical. Complements are those elements that are syntactically required to complete the verb phrase, not those that are semantically required. – BillJ Sep 21 '21 at 06:27