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EfS Grammar VII: The Passive Voice

EfS Grammar VII: The Passive Voice. Active and passive sentences and why sometimes passives are used in technical writing. Active Sentences. Up to now all sentences we have dealt with have been active . But some sentences contained an object whereas others did not:.

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EfS Grammar VII: The Passive Voice

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  1. EfS Grammar VII:The Passive Voice Active and passive sentences and why sometimes passives are used in technical writing.

  2. Active Sentences Up to now all sentences we have dealt with have been active. But some sentences contained an object whereas others did not: Maria went to London last year. S V Adverbs, adverbials and phrases of manner, place and/or time I have written a letter. S V O

  3. Two Types of Verb As a general property verbs either take an object or they do not:Verbs with an object are called transitive (v.t.).Verbs without an object are called intransitive (v.i.). Transitive verbs take haben: gemacht, beobachtet haben. Some intransitive verbs take haben when they have an indirect object: geholfen haben. Other intransitive verbs take sein: gefahren sein.

  4. Allowed and Forbidden Passives Only transitive verbs (v.t.) and intransitive verbs (v.i.) with an indirect object can be used in the passive voice ... Er ist gegangen worden. Verbs of state (be, have, etc) which involve no action cannot be made passive; Nor can metaphors whose non-literal meaning is apparent (with the exception of technical terms [normalised metaphors]).

  5. Active to Passive: Checklist • SVO? • Identify tense • Reconstruct • Object -> Subject; • "To be" into the correct tense and the main verb in the third form; • The rest of the sentence as it stands; • The old subject can be introduced with "by" (= agent).

  6. The Verb "to be"

  7. Example simple past C12 3a3b3c3d S V O  Becquerel discovered radioactivity on acloudy Sunday afternoon in Paris.    Radioactivity was discovered by Becquerel on a cloudy Sunday afternoon in Paris  

  8. Verbs with Two Objects Some verbs take two objects:A direct object andAn indirect object, e.g. give, write: John gave me a book. John gave me a book. I was given a book. and not Peter … John gave a book to me. A book was given to me. and not a watch …

  9. Reasons for Use • The agent is unknown; • The agent has no intentions or responsibility; • We wish to emphasise the object (object is topic); • The process is more important than the agent. The wind blew down a tree. The tree crushed a car. The nastiest couple since Bonny and Clyde. A tree was blown down. A car was crushed.

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