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  1. I was born in 1961.
    Some dictionaries like Oxford Advanced dictionary, Collins and most other lexicographers say that born is the past participle form of the verb bear and they say that the sentence is in the passive voice.
  2. Some other dictionaries like Cambridge Advanced and some other dictionaries say that the sentence I was born in 1961 is not in the passive voice since born is not the past participle of verb bear but it is an adjective here. Even grammarians seem to be divided on this matter.
    I hope this is the right platform to clarify my confusion

Tendulkar is gone.

Here gone is an adjective. Similarly, in “I was born in 1961” the word born seems to be an adjective. Most grammarians I know consider it an adjective rather than a past participle. But it appears that both lexicographers and grammarians are divided on this grammatical issue.

I think it needs much more exhaustive explanation than the one provided in the older question.

Mari-Lou A
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Jvlnarasimharao
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1 Answers1

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It's not an adjective.

"Born" (in the childbirth sense) is the past participle of "bear", and is restricted to the passive. It only occurs in short passives. So we can have [1] but not [2]:

[1] I was born in 1961.

[2] *I was born by a Greek peasant.

BillJ
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  • What would be the correct version of [2]? I was given birth by...? – fev Jun 24 '23 at 10:51
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    All the above comments or answers are rather confusing. It seems that my confusion is confounded. – Jvlnarasimharao Jun 24 '23 at 10:53
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    @Jvlnarasimharao Why? It's clear that "born" (in the childbirth sense) is the past participle of "bear", and is found in such passive examples as the ones above. – BillJ Jun 24 '23 at 11:00
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    But not in English. – BillJ Jun 24 '23 at 11:08
  • @fev [2] could be I was born to a Greek peasant but that still doesn't necessarily add an actual agent to the sentence. – oerkelens Jun 24 '23 at 15:11
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    It's one of the few English deponent verbs. Latin had lots of them, including 'speak' loquor, loquari, locutus sum, but I can't think of another English one. There are defective English verbs like modals and beware and like that, but deponency in English is not between active and passive forms, but between past participles and predicate adjectives – John Lawler Jun 24 '23 at 23:41
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    We don't have 'deponent verbs' in English. It's as simple as that. – BillJ Jun 25 '23 at 05:40
  • In meaning it's a regular passive not a deponent, which has passive form but active sense, cf the standard passive "I was made" which is the same as "I was born". – Stuart F Jun 27 '23 at 05:29