Passive

Adaptedfrom:EnglishGrammarLessons/Dean&

h;p://unilearning.uow.edu.au/

Quiz

1.  WhowroteSherlockHolmesstories?2.  Whenwasbeerinvented?3.  WherewouldyoufindtheSeaofTranquillity?4.  Whichfilmaboutalargeshipwasdirectedby

JamesCameron?5.  WhereareHyundaicarsproduced?

Answers

•  SherlockHolmesstorieswerewri0enbyArthurConanDoyle.

•  BeerwasinventedintheNeolithicperiod.•  TheSeaofTranquillityisfoundonthemoon.•  Thefilm‘Titanic’wasdirectedbyJamesCameron.

•  HyundaicarsareproducedinSouthKorea.

Passivestructures

•  TheSherlockHolmesstorieswerewri0enbyArthurConanDoyle.

•  BeerwasinventedintheNeolithicperiod.•  TheSeaofTranquillityisfoundonthemoon.•  Thefilm‘Titanic’wasdirectedbyJamesCameron.•  HyundaicarsareproducedinSouthKorea.Whichoftheseare:present?past?plural?singular?

WritetheseasacSvestructures…

•  TheSherlockHolmesstorieswerewri0enbyArthurConanDoyle.

•  BeerwasinventedintheNeolithicperiod.•  TheSeaofTranquillityisfoundonthemoon.•  Thefilm‘Titanic’wasdirectedbyJamesCameron.

•  HyundaicarsareproducedinSouthKorea.

Answers

•  ArthurConanDoylewrotetheSherlockHolmesstories.

•  Aman(?)inventedbeerintheNeolithicperiod.

•  YouwouldfindTheSeaofTranquillityonthemoon.

•  JamesCamerondirectedthefilm‘Titanic’.•  AcompanyproducesHyundaicarsinSouthKorea.

Useofpassivestructures

Weusepassivestructureswhen:•  ThesubjectoftheacSonisnotknown…– BeerwasinventedintheNeolithicperiod.

•  ThesubjectoftheacSonisnotthefocusofthesentenceorisnotimportant…– Thefilm‘Titanic’wasdirectedbyJamesCameron.

•  ThesubjectoftheacSonisobvious…– HyundaicarsareproducedinSouthKorea.

Useofpassivestructures

Passiveisusedespeciallyin:•  FormalnoSces:PermissionwillbegiveninwriOng.

•  Newspapers:AmanisbeingquesOonedaboutarobbery.

•  Processesinscienceorengineering:Theengineiscooledbycoldwater.

•  AcademicwriSng:Theresultisdiscussedlateroninthechapter.

Changeinfocus

NoScethechangeinfocuswhenthepassiveisused:•  Ac#ve:NursingstaffobservedthehandwashingpracScesofstaffduringrosteredshiZs.

•  Passive:Thehandwashingprac#cesofstaffwereobservedbynursingstaffduringrosteredshiZs.

Whichoftheseismorenatural:

•  OnanoSce:A.Wewillprosecutetrespassers.B.Trespasserswillbeprosecuted.

Whichoftheseismorenatural:

A:WhatdotheMarconifamilyeat?B1:TheMarconifamilyeatalotofpastaorB2:AlotofpastaiseatenbytheMarconifamily

Whichoftheseismorenatural:

A:Where’syourcar?B1:Thegarageareservicingit.OrB2:It’sbeingserviced.

Whichoftheseismorenatural:

•  WecanvalidateargumentswithfairreasoningandstrongsupporSveevidence.

•  ArgumentscanbevalidatedwithfairreasoningandstrongsupporSveevidence.

Answers•  A:WhatdotheMarconifamilyeat?•  B:TheMarconifamilyeatalotofpasta

•  B.Trespasserswillbeprosecuted.

•  A:Where’syourcar?•  B:It’sbeingserviced.

•  ArgumentscanbevalidatedwithfairreasoningandstrongsupporSveevidence.

Passiveform

Comparethesesentences:•  ScienSstsclassifyglassasasolid.•  Glassisclassifiedasasolid.

IdenSfyform.

Passiveform

Comparethesesentences:•  Thenumberofseedsfoundinantnestswerecounted.

•  Wecountedthenumberofseedsfoundinantnests.

IdenSfytheform.

Passiveform

Comparethesesentences:•  Althoughresearchersaremakingprogress,therearemanyotheravenuesofinvesSgaSonasyetunexplored.

•  Althoughprogressisbeingmade,therearemanyotheravenuesofinvesSgaSonasyetunexplored.

IdenSfytheform.

Passiveform

Comparethesesentences:•  SocietyhasusedthebiologicaldifferencesbetweenmenandwomentolegiSmatehierarchicalstructuresofsocialinequality.

•  ThebiologicaldifferencesbetweenmenandwomenhavebeenusedtolegiSmatehierarchicalstructuresofsocialinequality.

IdenSfytheform.

Whatcanyougeneraliseabouttheform?

•  Passiveismadewith….

e.g.Researchers_____________theresults.Theresults_________________

…theverb‘tobe’(inthetensethattheacSvesentencewouldhavehad)+PastparScipleofthemainverb

studied

werestudied

havestudiedhavebeenstudied

PassiveformTense Ac#ve Passive

Presentsimple

Baseform/-s

PresentconSnuous

Am/is/are+-ing

Presentperfectsimple

Have/has+pastparSciple

Pastsimple

-ed

PastconSnuous Was/were+-ing

Pastperfectsimple Had+pastparSciple

Futuresimple

Will+infiniSve

PassiveformTense Ac#ve Passive

Presentsimple

Baseform/-s Am/is/are+pastparSciple

PresentconSnuous

Am/is/are+-ing

Am/is/are+being+pastparSciple

Presentperfectsimple

Have/has+pastparSciple Have/hasbeen+pastparSciple

Pastsimple

-ed Was/were+pastparSciple

PastconSnuous Was/were+-ing Was/werebeing+pastparSciple

Pastperfectsimple Had+pastparSciple Hadbeen+pastparSciple

Futuresimple

Will+infiniSve

Willbe+pastparSciple

NotusedinEnglishTense Ac#ve Passive

PresentperfectconSnuous have/hasbeen+-ing

*have/hasbeenbeing+pastparSciple

PastperfectconSnuous hadbeen+-ing

*hadbeenbeing+pastparSciple

IMPORTANT:*TheseconstrucSonsarenotusedinEnglish

Someverbshavenopassive

•  ManyacSveverbscannottakethepassiveformbecausethesubjectisimportant

•  E.g.escape,fit,get,have,let,like,suit,survive

Theseshoesdonotfitme.Amanescapedfromprisonlastnight.TheygotdivorcedaSer4years.

SomeverbsareoZenpassive

•  AZermodals-Present:Thisproblemcanbesolved.

(modal+‘be’+pastparSciple)

UnrealPast:Thereportshouldhavebeenfinishedhoursago.

(modal+‘havebeen’+pastparSciple)

SomeverbsareoZenpassive

•  WeusepassiveinfiniSvewiththeseverbs:advise,believe,expect,feel,forbid,mean,order,report,request,say,teach,understand.Wearebeingtaughttousethepassive.ThepaSentisbelievedtobewell.

(Passive+infiniSve+object/adjecSve)

It

•  InformalwriSngweoZenuse‘it’asthesubject,especiallywiththeseverbs:

agree,announce,discover,expect,hope,suggestItwassuggestedthatglobalwarmingisacceleraSng.ItisexpectedthatscienSstswillfindacureforthecommoncoldsoon.

Makeintopassivesentences

•  Wecanmeasureglobalwarmingbymeasuringtemperatures;however,obtaininganaccuratereadingoftheEarth’stemperatureiscomplicated.

•  ScienSstshaveimplementedathoroughaccounSngofthecomplicaSonsin‘ExtendedReconstructedSeaSurfaceTemperature’.

•  First,theyfocusonoceansurfacetemperaturemeasurementsfromfloaSngbuoysandfromship-boardsensors.

•  Second,theydocumentthehistoricalchangeinhowshipsmeasuresurfacetemperatures.

•  Decadesago,researchersmeasuredtemperaturesbyinsulatedbuckets.

•  AroundtheSmeofWorldWar2,scienSstsagreedtochangefrominsulatedbucketstotemperaturesensorscontainedwithinshiphulls.

Key1

•  Globalwarmingcanbemeasuredbymeasuringtemperatures;however,obtaininganaccuratereadingoftheEarth’stemperatureiscomplicated.

•  AthoroughaccounSngofthecomplicaSonshavebeenimplementedin‘ExtendedReconstructedSeaSurfaceTemperature’.

Key2

•  First,oceansurfacetemperaturemeasurementsfromfloaSngbuoysandfromship-boardsensorswerefocussedon.

•  Second,thehistoricalchangeinhowshipsmeasuresurfacetemperaturesweredocumented.

•  Decadesago,temperaturesweremeasuredbyinsulatedbuckets.

Key3

•  AroundtheSmeofWorldWar2,itwasagreedtochangefrominsulatedbucketstotemperaturesensorscontainedwithinshiphulls.

Makingitnatural

•  Thepassiveshouldnotbeoverusedinaparagraph.BalanceafewpassivesentenceswithmoreacSveones.

•  Inthepreviousparagraph,decidewhichofthesentencesshouldbeinpassiveandwhichinacSvetomakeitsoundmorenatural.

Key•  Globalwarmingcanbemeasuredbymeasuringtemperatures;

however,obtaininganaccuratereadingoftheEarth’stemperatureiscomplicated.

•  ScienSstshaveimplementedathoroughaccounSngofthecomplicaSonsin‘ExtendedReconstructedSeaSurfaceTemperature’.

•  First,theyfocusonoceansurfacetemperaturemeasurementsfromfloaSngbuoysandfromship-boardsensors.

•  Second,thehistoricalchangeinhowshipsmeasuresurfacetemperaturesweredocumented.

•  Decadesago,temperaturesweremeasuredbyinsulatedbuckets.•  AroundtheSmeofWorldWar2,scienSstsagreedtochangefrom

insulatedbucketstotemperaturesensorscontainedwithinshiphulls.