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There are multiple places I've seen the advice that variations of the "to be" linking verb (are/amwas/were/is) is weak, sometimes passive and indirect.
By that I mean "She was surprised by Luke's lack of teeth" is weaker than "Luke surprised her with a lack of teeth" or "Luke's lack of teeth surprised her".
So I'm wondering, what grammatical situations would this not be the case and these linking verbs should be used?
While beta-reading for an author where "was" happened ofte, I mentioned this and he pointed out that "was" is important because it denotes current action. If Jill was running, that implies she's continuing to run, and something can happen; if it were simply Jill ran, that suggests it's completed. I wasn't sure how to respond.
Edit: Oops, wrong forum. Thanks for the move, Old Hack!
By that I mean "She was surprised by Luke's lack of teeth" is weaker than "Luke surprised her with a lack of teeth" or "Luke's lack of teeth surprised her".
So I'm wondering, what grammatical situations would this not be the case and these linking verbs should be used?
While beta-reading for an author where "was" happened ofte, I mentioned this and he pointed out that "was" is important because it denotes current action. If Jill was running, that implies she's continuing to run, and something can happen; if it were simply Jill ran, that suggests it's completed. I wasn't sure how to respond.
Edit: Oops, wrong forum. Thanks for the move, Old Hack!
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