Re: Grammar question

["Pamela D. Angulo" <pamarama -at- EMPIRE -dot- NET>]

Wow, a query I feel qualified to answer! It's great to sit in on your
discussions.

Michelle Vina-Baltsas wrote
> There is a debate going on in my office over this; which is
correct:
> 1) Your comments are always welcomed.
> 2) Your comments are always welcome.

Sentence 2 is correct. Comments are received with pleasure, not
greeted at the door with a bouquet! The difference in this example is
the part of speech, not the tense. In Sentence 1, welcome is a verb,
and in Sentence 2, it's an adjective. (Show your colleagues
dictionary definitions to illustrate distinctions -- Webster's 10th
has four separate usage entries for welcome as verb, interjection,
adjective, and noun.)

Then, David Meek added
> On a related note, I often see a phrase such as:
> ... until the task is complete.
> My contention is that the phrase should be:
> ... until the task is completed.

Your instinct is correct. An object that is complete has all its
parts; such adjectival usage doesn't make sense in this context.
Something brought to an end, however, has been completed -- and I
would use the construction "until the task has been completed." Yes,
it's a bit wordier, but it's grammatically correct. And it doesn't
make me do a double-take when I look at it. (Don't ask me what part
of speech that is, though!! Past pluperfect, maybe?)

pam, not really a grammar geek, but getting a hankerin' to hear
Grammar Rock's "Conjunction junction, what's my function"
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Pamela Angulo, Freelance Editor
Salem, New Hampshire
pamarama -at- empire -dot- net


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