He is hungry. (adjective)
He is interested (stative passive)
His leg is broken (stative passive)
Stative passives indicate a status or condition which may exist over a period of time. In contrast, action verbs often indicate a change from one status to another.
We got married in 1998. (Action: We changed from "single" to "married.")
We are married now. (Status: Our current condition is "married.")
Jack broke the window. (Action: Indicates what happened at a given moment.)
The window is broken. (Status: Indicates the condition of the window.)
Note how the action/status contrast works with other verbs:
Jared fell asleep. (Action: Change in status from "awake" to "asleep").
Jared is asleep. (Status: Indicates Jared's current condition.)
She is interested in photography.
Brad was worried about his mother.
Carmen is terrified of snakes.
Everyone was caught up in the excitement.
A salient type of stative passive is the combination of the verb to be with adjectives that describe an emotional state. There are about three dozen of them in common use. They are derived from verbs and are identical in form to past participles, most of them ending in -ed. But instead of indicating an action, they refer to the experiencing of an emotion. Note these examples:
I was bored. (= I felt bored.)
I was depressed. (= I felt depressed.)
I was exhausted. (= I felt exhausted.)
Instead of an agent by-phrase, these adjectives most often take a range of prepositions to connect them to the cause of the emotion.
I was exhausted from so much work.
I was interested in computers.
I was bored with my classes.
I was exhausted from so much work.
I was interested in computers.
I was bored with my classes.
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