Thread: What part of speech is this?

That's the passive voice. Любим is the passive past participle, shortened as done to many adjectives, participles that serve as a predicate. It corresponds with "loved"

The muical is loved...

Thanks iCake. Ok. passive participle. But I think you mean present? My verb book has любимый for the present passive participle. And this is here shortened to любим? If so - I didn't know that present participles could be shortened. I thought it was only the past passive (of perfective verbs) which could be shortened. - I don't think it can be past passive - of the imperfective verb любить? My dictionary doesn't have an entry for that and I think it is v. rare for imperfective verbs to have a past passive participle?

Thanks

Yes, it's the present passive of the imperfective любить
The masculine singular short form of present passive participles can often look just like the мы-form.
Both past and present passives can be predicates (not attached to a noun, so without case), and therefore have short forms.

видеть
Мы видим его.
Он видим нами.

*"Он - любящ." For instance, is incorrect. Because the active participles don't ever get used in this way, there exist no short forms from them.

Originally Posted by xXHoax

*"Он - любящ." For instance, is incorrect. Because the active participles don't ever get used in this way, there exist no short forms from them.

Even this is not entirely true. For example. you can say:

Он в этих делах сведущ.

That word is clearly derived from an active participle, although it's switched to being classified as an adjective now.