student asking question

What's the part of speech of "mid-stir"? And is it okay to say "mid-stirred (past participle as a adjective)" which is transformed from "mid-stir"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Mid" here is an adjective used to describe a verb. So "mid-stir" is an adjective + verb that means in the middle of stirring. You can pair "mid" with many different verbs to express that something happened in the middle of that verb taking place, and the action was interrupted. "Mid" is normally used in the present tense, and in this case, it wouldn't sound right to transform "mid-stir" to the past tense, "mid-stirred". This is because "mid + verb" describes something happening at that moment in the middle of an action, so even when referring to this happening in the past tense, the present tense form is still used. Ex: She had stopped mid-chewing to answer the doorbell. Ex: I photographed the bird in mid-flight.

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