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Ask for help > A question about the Passive Voice
A question about the Passive Voice
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natushka
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A question about the Passive Voice
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Hi everybody,
I have a question about the form of the passive sentence. When I change sentences from active to passive what is the correct order and what is the rule of putting the agent in the sentence, examples:
David is feeding the dog at home now.
is it?: The dog is being fed by David at home now. or
The dog is being fed at home by David now.
The investigators published the findings in the newspaper yesterday.
The findings were published in the newspaper by the investigators yesterday. or The findings were published by the investigators in the newspaper yesterday.
Thanks, N. |
31 Oct 2009
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julianbr
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hey Nat .. I think both forms are okay in principle .. although the fact the findings were published by the investigators is possibly redundant .. the findings were published in the newspaper yesterday ... obviously by the investigators or somebody associated with them .... if the investigators are important I think the active voice might be better ..
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31 Oct 2009
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anitarobi
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I was taught, even back in high school, that word order in an affirmative English statement should always go like this - SVOPT! S-subject, V-verb, O-object, P-place, T-time, with the option to move either place or time to the very beginning, in case you �ve got a long sentence on your hands (and in that case, if they �re long, separate them from the rest of the sentence by commas). It may seem too simplistic, but I find it very useful and I still teach it to all my sts. It doesn �t matter if it �s active or passive. And another thing - if you �ve got more times or places, the first one is always the �smaller � one; e. g. in a restaurant in London (restaurant being smaller than London), or at 5 o �clock yesterday (the 5 o �clock being shorter than the whole day yesterday). I do hope this helps. Btw, as far as passive is concerned, it is not always necessary to express the doer of the action (by John, by some people), unless it �s very important, or you just want to �drill � your sts in word order. And I warmly recommend www.englishpage.com for all your grammatical and similar problems - I often use it, it has rules, examples and lots of online exercises. |
31 Oct 2009
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zizou27300
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Hi there
We all know that the passive voice is used when the receiver of the the action C Object) is more important than the performer of the action ( subject) or when the performer of the action is unknown or unimportant. In the passive voice, the subject is the receiver of the action of the verb.that �s why in the PV, the subject is an option. You needn �t mention the it.
Example: Hundred of trees are planted in the village. Does the reader care about Who planted the trees? of course not.S the Subject is unimportant |
31 Oct 2009
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julianbr
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well Zizou .. you say of course not ... but what if somebody wants 100 more trees planting and is looking for someone with a bit of experience to help .. ??
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31 Oct 2009
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natushka
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Thank u all for you �re answers/help. Of course I was talking only about drilling!, so in these cases we want to make sure that when the agent is important, our students know where to put it in a sentence. Obviously in most cases it isn �t mentioned at all. |
31 Oct 2009
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Marla D.
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I think it should be: The findings of the investigators were published in the newspaper yesterday. The investigators do not publish the information. The newspaper does.
Also, the first dog sentence seems to make more sense. |
31 Oct 2009
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