Consider these two ways of saying something:
- Testing complete.
- Testing is completed.
This is just an example. I want to understand any differences between the two constructions “ᴠᴇʀʙɪɴɢ ᴀᴅᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇ” versus “ᴠᴇʀʙɪɴɢ ᴠᴇʀʙꜱ ᴠᴇʀʙᴇᴅ” in the present tense.
Anyone, please explain to me whether these phrases have any differences or not? Do they mean the same thing? Are they interchangeable? Where would you use one and where the other?
Best Answer
First, I should point out that the first sentence is an abbreviated form of "testing is complete". This kind of abbreviated form is used in newspaper headlinese, notices and computer status displays.
As an adjective, complete means whole, so the following sentence means that all of the pieces of testing have been put together... probably not what you meant.
As a verb, complete means finished, and I think that this is the meaning that you are looking for: the completed form is a past participle which, in this context, is used to form a passive voice sentence. You could use present simple to say
but it is not what a native English speaker would say: they would be more likely to use present perfect
The difference is that present simple is used to talk about the way things are now, and present perfect is used about something that happened in the past (completion of the testing), that has an effect that lasts until the present time.