Be Excellent To Each Other

Yesterday, at dinner, Pauline carried a spoon of mash potato from the kitchen into the dinning room, and one of my kids said: "Careful it doesn't droop on Owen". Now, I corrected him saying it should be "drop" or perhaps "drip" but then it prompted a discussion of the word droop.

The word droop seems to have tenses, much like a verb, but surely it's an adjective? Compare the following:

1a) When the tree is fully grown the branches will droop above the river.
1b) The branches are drooping above the river.
1c) Before the tree fell down in the storm, the branches drooped into the river.

2a) Usain Bolt will run in the Olympic final.
2b) Usain Bolt is running in the Olympic final.
2c) Usain Bolt ran in the Olympic final.

3a) In spring the leaves on the tree will be green.
3b) As it's spring the leaves on the tree are green.
3b) In spring the leaves on the tree were green.

What am I missing? Why does this adjective behave more like a verb? Are there others? (Drape immediately comes to mind) Is droop actually a verb?

I know there are lots of people who like to talk about grammar and such, well, now you can prove* your worth!

Malc

*I always thought that prove was past tense, and proove would be the correct spelling that I want, but it looks wrong, and it's underlined so I guess it can't be.

Tons of verbs have adjective-like forms. It's not an adjective, it's a verb. It's describing what the branches are doing.

Lean/leaning
Slope/Sloping
Lie/Lying

Also, the past tense of prove is proven.

Yup, it's a verb.

Looks an awful lot like a verb to me. It droops. We droop. He/she droops. They droop. And so forth. "Droopy" might be an adjective, but I'm pretty sure that "to droop" is a verb.

It poops. We poop. He/she poops. They poop. And so forth. "Poopy" might be an adjective, but I'm pretty sure that "to poop" is a verb.

kalmar, you're looking very pooply today. That's an adverb, btw.

Hmm, I dislike the word "drooped". I am going to use "drope" from now on.

I proven that myp was an idiot? Idiot.

Your point is compelling.

Kalmar pooped into the river?

Really? So it's a verb?

Even though it's a property of the object? In my mind, those branches are going to droop until the tree dies, so it's a acting more like an adjective than a verb. But if that type of property is a verb then I guess that explains it.

Thanks.

Malc

Oh, and no erectile dis-function jokes? for shame.

Malc

It's not a property of the object. It's describing what the object is doing. The '-ing' is the giveaway.

My cock is in the river
\

See, the first thing I thought about wasn't erectile dusfunction, it was saggy boobies.

Then I saw the thread title. Arf!

See, the first thing I thought about wasn't erectile dusfunction, it was saggy boobies.

Then I saw the thread title. Arf!

LOL you made a boobie!

Lovely woody word.

No it isn't! An adverb would b(Oh for fuck's sake - Inspector J. Blandford, Joke Police, homicide division.)

Technically, if pooply was an actual word, and it meant sort of squinting, then in the context "looking very pooply", it would be an adverb.

Technically, so's your face. Yeah.

This whole thread reminds me of "Are You Smarter Than An 8 Year-Old?"... with myp as Noel Edmunds, obv.