Monday, 11 June 2007

AAE Q69: 'open'

Hi Matt,

Sorry to bother you, I saw in a textbook this sentence:

"The shops are open 24 hours."

Why not are opened - isn´t this a passive?

Miriam


Hi Miriam,

The confusion here is because 'open' is both an adjective and a verb.

In the sentence above the adjective is used. To use the verb 'open' would be difficult because opening something is usually a single action: "The shops are opened at 9am" (meaning that someone opens the shops at 9am).

I hope this answers your


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