Breakdown of La hierba ha quedado pisoteada por la multitud.
por
for / by / through / in (during a part of the day)
la hierba
the grass
haber
to have (auxiliary)
la multitud
the crowd
quedar
to be left, to end up (in a state)
pisotear
to trample
Questions & Answers about La hierba ha quedado pisoteada por la multitud.
Why use ha quedado instead of just ha sido (has been) here?
Using quedar + past participle focuses heavily on the resulting state of an action. While ha sido pisoteada is a standard passive voice focusing on the action itself, ha quedado pisoteada emphasizes the final, damaged condition the grass was left in after the crowd was done.
Could we use the pronominal se ha quedado here instead of ha quedado?
Yes, se ha quedado is also grammatically correct. However, for an inanimate object like la hierba, the non-pronominal quedar is very common and sounds slightly more objective or formal. Quedarse + participle is often preferred for people to express a subjective or psychological result (like se ha quedado sorprendido).
Wait, doesn't the past participle in the present perfect always end in -o? Why is it pisoteada?
You are thinking of the standard present perfect (like if the crowd ha pisoteado the grass), where the participle never changes. But in this sentence, the conjugated verb is ha quedado. The word pisoteada is part of the resultative structure (quedar + past participle) and acts like an adjective describing la hierba. Therefore, it must agree in gender and number (feminine singular).
I recognize the root of pisoteada from pisar (to step). How does the ending change the meaning?
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