"Be" as an action in the past or as linking verb
She was smiling when she saw you.
Is this the past continuous tense or is was acting as a linking verb between subject and predicate adjective?
How can one distinguish easily between the two?
Solution 1:
In your sentence:
She was smiling when she saw you.
Smiling is a verb here and not a predicate adjective. You can tell because insertion of the intensifier very is not grammatical:
- She was ✳very smiling when she saw you.
[Ungrammatical because smiling is a verb here, not an adjective.]
It’s not merely difficult but indeed nearly impossible to construe a context in which such a thing could be said and still be perceived as meaningful and grammatical. It’s not grammatical because very in one of those words that can only be used on modifiers, not on actual verbs. You can never say “She ✳very smiled” even though you could say “She truly smiled” with no problem.
Contrast that with these two easy examples of predicate adjectives:
- She was very loving whenever she saw you.
[Grammatical because loving is an adjective here, not a verb.] - She was very happy whenever she saw you.
[Grammatical because happy an adjective here.]