Hard-fought

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Dear friends,

I was reading an article from a well-known book called for and against by L.G.Alexander when I faced a weird expression I could not understand the tense of it.

“Hard-fought battle”

I am curious to know why the author did use hard-fight battle. I never saw PP form of a verb used in such grammatical structures.

the complete sentence is

They have proved repeatedly that they are equal and often superior
to men in almost every field. The hard-fought battle for recognition has
been won, but it is by no means over. It is men, not women who still carry
on the sex war because their attitude remains basically hostile.

Your comments would be highly appreciated.
Amir

2

Hi Swan,

The use of the past participle in ‘hard fought’ is to indicate that the battle has been fought/has been won. In other words it describes what has happened. You could see similar constructions in -

well written novel/easily understood examples/badly delivered speech. They all refer to what has already been achieved/accomplished.

3

Hi Alan,

At first I really could not understand, but with the examples I got the point.

Thank you
Amir