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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > what do you think of this ?
what do you think of this ?
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zola1975
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what do you think of this ?
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i went through various printables in the website and elsewhere anf found this passive construction: the house has been being built as a passive form of
they have been building a house. However, according to expert grammarians this construction is considered silly by some ,or at least weird by others since native speakers will never say such thing. that �s why i advise our colleagues to focus more on appropriateness than on grammaticality. " there are rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless" as Del Hymes had once said |
9 Jan 2010
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PhilipR
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The sentence �the house has been being built � is complete nonsense of course. You can �t use the passive of some verb tenses (although they theoretically exist).
Want another silly example? �They�ll be having fun� becomes �Fun will be having had�. ROTFLOL
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9 Jan 2010
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aquarius_gr
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Technically it �s not wrong. The passive forms of some tenses are rarely formed or even used because they are mind-boggling and not easily comprehended.
As for the the second post �s example, the correct transformation would be "Fun will be being had", which yes, would be very silly since it is a state and not an action.
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9 Jan 2010
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zola1975
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Here is a quotation from a famous book:
�The present perfect continuous tense does not exist in the passive. The nearest passive equivalent of a sentence such as They have been repairing the road would normally be: the road has been repaired (present perfect passive), which is not exactly the same thing.� A Practical English Grammar by Thomson & Martinet |
11 Jan 2010
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zola1975
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the same thing for the past perfect continuous here is the quotation:
Note that this tense has no passive form. The nearest passive equivalent of a sentence such as They had been picking apples would be Apples had been picked, which is not the same thing A Practical English Grammar by Thomson & Martinet |
11 Jan 2010
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