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Tool 32: A prestarted verbal (PVbl) is like a prestarted verb (PV), but it has no have
helper verb (HH) and no subject (S). Take a moment to write this one down.
We remember that verbals look like verbs but don't act like verbs. They are words that
are often used as verbs, but in this case, in this sentence, they're used differently.
Remember tool 4, what a word is depends on how it's used.
Okay, so 'broken" in this case is on our list of PVs, so you might try to label it a PV.
However, there's no have helper here. Nobody has broken anything, we're talking about the
broken glass, which was dangerous. In fact, the glass is our subject, and so this word,
broken, describes the glass. So in this case, it's acting as a describing word, or adjective,
and so it's not a PV, it is a PVbl What's our verb? was.
She wrote her sworn testimony on the page. What's our subject here? She. What did she
do? she wrote. her sworn testimony: so sworn, again, looks like PV, it's on our PV list,
but in this case it's acting like a describing word to describe what kind of testimony it
was. So it's PVbl. Most times, PVbls will describe something. They won't tell what someone's
doing - in other words, she's not swearing right now, she's writing. She's writing something
that's called her sworn testimony. ...Let's not forget to label those prepositional phrases.
You are mistaken. Who's the subject here? the subject is you. And you might say, oh,
okay, this is a BH and a PV. But remember, BHs don't go with PVs, HHs go with PVs. So
this is something different. This is a verb by itself, and this is a PVbl. In other words,
mistaken is not something that you're doing, or something that you did, you didn't mistake.
It's describing you. You are mistaken.