"The boat is made of paper." Why is the made in the past tense in this sentence? What kind of grammar is this?
passive voice; The paper makes the boat. that is the correct form
This is the Passive Voice. It does not say WHO made it, which would be Active Voice. Instead it says what has been done.
Sra
In the sentence "The boat is made of paper," the verb "made" is in the past tense because it refers to an action that was completed in the past. This construction is known as the passive voice.
In English, the passive voice is formed by using a form of the auxiliary verb "be" followed by the past participle of the main verb. In this case, the main verb is "make," and its past participle is "made."
The passive voice is often used when the focus is on the object or receiver of the action, rather than the subject performing the action. It allows us to emphasize what was done to the object, rather than who did it. In this sentence, the emphasis is on the fact that the boat was "made," rather than who made it.
To identify the passive voice in a sentence, you can look for forms of "be" followed by a past participle. In this case, "is" is a form of "be," and "made" is the past participle.