Linguist List - Ask A Linguist Index Page is a great web site! I was correcting some quizzes and the first three I looked at had "... are showed" as an answer. As I marked the third one wrong I said "Wait a minute! The past participle could be showed": Have you showed him the pictures? I get my dictionary: showed or shown. I get the teachers book: shown. I do a web search and find this Ask a linguist site. It turns out someone asked my question back in 1998. In the active shown and showed are both possible. In the passive, it has to be "shown". I just wish I'd told my students before the quiz...
Posted by James Trotta at December 20, 2003 3:59 PMThe movie could be shown because the electricity came back on.
Somehow this sounds wrong...
"The past participle could be showed ....on the blackboard."
You're right; it does sound wrong. I think the past participle has to be "shown" in passive sentences like "...could be showed on the board". Shown by who?
Posted by: James Trotta at December 23, 2003 8:30 AMESL blog is one of many Blogs for learning English & teaching English. Translation services information.