![]() It is reputed to be a good language school, but the administration is terrible. Some verbs do not usually appear in the active form: In all the above cases, you do not need to know who did the action, so you do not need to say by + a noun. The phrase could be expressed differently.The results may be related to other findings.Passives can also be used after modal verbs like may, might, can or could: The passive is also used often with these verbs: It is good to use the passive in scientific writing in the case of: In academic writing, scientists use the passive voice more than writers in the humanities, arts or social sciences. However, there are many situations (as in the passive should be avoided) where the passive is useful. Some people say that the passive should be avoided as much as possible, because it makes a person’s writing less clear and less interesting. – Robin is the main focus of the sentence. Robin had the group project edited by Ching. – The group project is the main focus of the sentence. ![]() The first noun/subject in a sentence in English is usually the strongest one.Į.g. In English it is possible because of the ergative verb start. In other languages the sentence would not be possible. In some languages you could indicate this with a reflexive verb. It is as though the project started all by itself. That would emphasise the action and the final result without naming the person who started it.ģ) The group project started. We could even remove the name and say: The group project was started. The emphasis is on the group project and on the fact that someone started it, rather than on the person who started it. The emphasis is on Robin as the person responsible for starting the group project.Ģ) The group project was started by Robin. To check if a verb can be used in this way, look at the ergative verbs list.Įrgative verbs are a step further on from the active and the passive.ġ) Robin started the group project. For example, native speakers do not say: The figures were decreased they say: The figures decreased. Using ergative verbs will make you sound more like a native speaker of English. Interesting is a present participle used as an adjective. I am interesting (= people find me interesting they like what I say). I am boring (= people find me boring I talk for a long time about things that are not interesting).īoring is a present participle used as an adjective. If you are using an active construction, you can use a present participle:Į.g. If you are using a passive construction, you should use a past participle: I was bored by the speech. You could replace the past participle with an adjective: This emphasises the fact that the essay was well researched. This emphasises the action (research) and adds a person who did the action (Anna).Į.g. ![]() The essay was thoroughly researched by Anna. If you want to tell if a past participle is being used in a passive construction or as an adjective, see if you need to add the words by and a noun, or whether you can substitute an adjective for the past participle.Į.g. This can refer to the fact that the essay had been thought about carefully, or to the action that the student did when writing the essay. The past participle in a passive can act like an adjective.Į.g. If you are not sure if a verb is transitive or intransitive in English, try putting an object after it. (Examples of intransitive verbs are cry, laugh, go.) (Examples of transitive verbs are break, buy, make.) Intransitive verbs do not take an object and cannot be made passive. Only transitive verbs (verbs which take a direct object) can be made passive. You can use a passive when you want to emphasise the action itself, when the reader does not need to know who did an action, or when you do not want to emphasise who did an action (as long as you leave out the word by and the name, e.g. Using the passive voice changes the focus of your sentence. The active voice is more common than the passive. The active voice tells you what the subject of a sentence does. The passive in different languages Teachers' notes Passive and active voicesĮnglish has active and passive voices. The explanation can be downloaded as a PDF or Word document, as can the exercises ( PDF/ Word document). If you prefer, you can also see the corresponding explanation and exercises as documents. Exercise 1: Active, passive or ergative.Exercise 4: Present Simple or Present Perfect.Exercise 2: Present Simple, Past Simple or Present Perfect. ![]()
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