Some describing words (adjectives) look like a past participle of a verb.
Examples: annoyed, excited, thrilled
These are called participial adjectives.
Q: How do you know whether the word is being used as an adjective or as a verb?
A: If you can use the word “very” in front of it, it is an adjective.
Examples:
She was (very) annoyed. (Adjective)
He had annoyed her constantly for weeks. (Verb)
Which brings us to today’s sentence in question:
We may have to wait until these technologies are matured.
Mature can be either an adjective or a verb:
She is very mature for her age.
These trees will reach 30 ft when they mature.
Matured is not a participial adjective.
You wouldn’t say: “She is very matured for her age.”
Mature is the correct adjective.
Q: So how would we correct the sentence in question?
A1: We may have to wait until these technologies are mature. (Adjective)
A2: We may have to wait until these technologies have matured. (Past Participle Verb)
Technical Writing Tips for the Oil Patch 
November 24, 2013 at 6:27 pm |
Thanks! So matured can’t be used as an adjective. Noted.
September 20, 2014 at 5:17 am |
From my observations on this site and others, I believe if we’re goin’ to use a linking word then the following applies. If we use ‘is’ or its past tense/particle ‘are’, then we use mature. Similarly if we use ‘have’ or its past particle ‘has’ then we use matured. With some exceptions of course. But for me this makes the most sense. Try it and get back to me(examples toO) @MRehab3
July 8, 2020 at 4:59 pm |
Thanks , now it is clear for me that “matured ” can not be used as a adjective. It would be verb past participle form of mature . But mature can be used as a adjective. And annoyed can be used as a adjective as well as verb past participle form of annoy . Thanks for tech me .