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Can I Use “Had Born” in English sentence to express past perfect i.e. past of past?
1) He had born when I reached to the Hospital.
2) This is where I had born.
3) Your father came to hospital but before that you had born.
4) He had born in India.
Why Born is adjective and died is Verb? Also What verb for bron then?
user4084
Posted 2015-06-12T16:18:54.223
Reputation: 2 098
9
You need to use the passive with born (to be born).
Your sentences would be correct like so:
1) He had already been born when I reached the Hospital.
2) This is where I was born.
3) Your father came to hospital but that was before you were born.
4) He was born in India.
The past participle born is one of the two different past participles from the word to bear (borne & born). However, when referring to birth, born is used and can only be used in the passive form. Therefore you can only find it in combination with the verb have as an auxiliary verb in perfect tenses:
- He has been born.
- He had been born.
You cannot omit the verb to be in your sentence, it is required to form the passive. Born cannot be used in and active phrase, not when you're talking about birth.
To form active sentences when talking about birth, you use borne. However, with that past participle, it is the subject who is performing the act of giving birth while the object is the one that starts his life.
She has borne two children.
This website contains some solid information on the difference between born and borne: Borne vs. born - Grammarist
Vlammuh
Posted 2015-06-12T16:18:54.223
Reputation: 4 988
'borne' is a verb I hear often at all. From the verb to bear yes? From to carry. I never made to connection from born/bare/carry until now. Thank you. – Michael Dorgan – 2015-06-12T17:59:25.360
Yes, it's the past participle of to bear. And so is born, though each of them has a different meaning as I explained above. – Vlammuh – 2015-06-12T18:07:58.587
Yes, the meanings are clear to me as I'm a native speaker, but even so, I'm still amazed at all the little dirty corners of the langauge I still run across. Good answer. – Michael Dorgan – 2015-06-12T18:10:47.090
Ahh, I thought you were asking me something, my bad :P And yes, I kmow what you mean, I've had similar experiences in my native language as well – Vlammuh – 2015-06-12T18:13:15.610
Number 1 should be, "He was born when I reached the hospital." No "to". Number 3 should be, "Your father came to the hospital before you were born", or "Your father came to the hospital, but that was before you were born." "You" takes the plural verb "were" even when used in the singular. – Jay – 2015-06-12T18:19:41.453
Oops, seems I overlooked OP's errors. Fixed it, thanks! – Vlammuh – 2015-06-12T18:21:48.180
@Jay Since OP specifically asks about past perfect, I take it that what is intended here is He had (already) been born when I reached the hospital. – StoneyB on hiatus – 2015-06-12T19:57:29.003
@StoneyB Ok, I'll go with that. – Jay – 2015-06-15T04:03:49.117
1Born is very unusual as a passive verb form. Usually, we can indicate the agent with a by-phrase in passive clauses, but that doesn't work with born. – snailplane – 2015-07-30T18:53:03.227
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Nos. 1 and 3 are interesting sentences, here is how I would say those:
When I reached the hospital, he had already been born.
Your father arrived at the hospital too late; you had already been born.
J.R.
Posted 2015-06-12T16:18:54.223
Reputation: 108 123
Funny how I would use 'already arrived' instead of 'been born' on your second example. Let's us get rid of that troublesome 'been' :) – Michael Dorgan – 2015-06-12T18:34:18.110
@MichaelDorgan - Hmmm... Your father arrived at the hospital too late; you had already arrived. That's an interesting twist on the two definitions of the word arrived. How about this one? Your father showed up at the hospital too late; you had already arrived. – J.R. – 2015-06-12T19:41:32.440
arrived twice doesn't sound poetic enough. I'd leave came on the first, but arrived on the second :) Your second one is fun though! – Michael Dorgan – 2015-06-12T20:42:08.607
By the time your father bore your mother to the hospital, you had already been born. He could not bear the sight of you – Adam – 2015-06-17T17:14:55.470
1how very boring :) – Michael Dorgan – 2015-06-17T18:50:05.100
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Any are valid if changed to
had been born.
As far as tense:
born:dead :: to bear:to die
Technically, born is a past participle, not an adjective.
Dylan Cross
Posted 2015-06-12T16:18:54.223
Reputation: 511
0
Born is an adjective. So you must use a form of to be with it as you would any other adjective, if you are saying X is that quality/state described by the adjective.
To bear is a verb which means to give birth, and the past participle form of to bear is borne. However, the object of to bear will be whatever you are giving birth to.
She had borne a child.
If you want to identify your place of birth, say:
I was born in Memphis.
LawrenceC
Posted 2015-06-12T16:18:54.223
Reputation: 31 841
2Born in this sense is always used with BE, so the perfect will be *HAVE been born*: the present/past perfects are I have/had been born, he has/had been born, you/we/they have/had been born – StoneyB on hiatus – 2015-06-12T16:29:41.483
1@Stoney is right, but, for two of these sentences, I think most native speakers would just use "was": This is where I was born. He was born in India. – J.R. – 2015-06-12T18:15:59.230
Perhaps because dying is something you do, whereas being born is something that happens to the infant that is going to become you. – jamesqf – 2015-06-18T00:00:10.173