Passive - Structure Exercise

 

Passive Overview

Structure

We form the passive using the relevant tense of the verb to be, plus the past participle of the main verb.

So for the verb clean, we would have:

Passive Summary of Tenses
Present Simple Present Continuous Past Simple Past Continuous Future Simple Going To Future Present Perfect Past Perfect Simple Can Should	The room is cleaned every day It is being cleaned now It was cleaned yesterday It was being cleaned at six yesterday It will be cleaned tomorrow It is going to be cleaned tomorrow It has been cleaned twice It had been cleaned before It can be cleaned easily It should be cleaned daily

To form the question, we put the auxiliary verb first:

Is it being cleaned today?
Had it been cleaned before?
Should it be cleaned daily?

Use

Look at this sentence:

They will deliver the letter tomorrow.

"the letter" is the object of the sentence. "they" is the subject. We can make "the letter" the subject:

The letter will be delivered tomorrow.

And if we want, we can include the subject of the first sentence:

The letter will be delivered by them tomorrow.

So we use the passive to say what happens to the subject of a sentence.

The bridge was painted in 1999.
Military jets are usually flown by men.
The flight to Boston will be delayed because of striking ground crew.

And we use an active sentence to say what a subject does:

John Exmoor painted that bridge in 1999.
Air Force pilots, usually men, fly military jets.
Striking ground crew will delay the departure of the Boston flight.

Sometimes, active sentences sound unnatural because who does the action is not important or not known. The action itself is important.

Tickets can be purchased from the booth at the entrance.
Spanish is spoken in much of South America.
Edward Moore was killed at his farm late last night.

The same sentences rewritten using the active would not be wrong, but the subject of these sentences would sound strange:

You can purchase tickets from the booth at the entrance.
People speak Spanish in much of South America.
Someone killed Edward Moore at his farm late last night.

Passive Present

Remember that the verb "to be" has to be used in all passive sentences and must be plural if the subject is plural:

This phone is made of plastic.
but
These chairs are made of wood.

After the verb "to be", you must use the past participle in all tenses.

Vintage wine is sold on the second floor.
not
Vintage wine is sell on the second floor.

The passive is used in the present often to describe processes:

The half-finished machine is then sent to Room 4 for painting.
The wine is then taken and put into bottles.

Passive Past

Remember with the passive that the past participle is always the same. You can see a list of common irregular verbs on this page.

It is the verb "to be" that changes:

I was driven around in the taxi at high speed.
We were treated terribly at the hotel last year.
I had to be taken to hospital immediately.

Note how the passive in English is more flexible than in other languages. Look at these two sentences:

The letter was sent by Express Post and arrived at 9am.
I was sent a letter by my wife.

In the first, it's clear that the subject of the passive sentence is the letter. In the second, it is not "I" that is sent, but, again, the letter. English allows for this type of construction. Other examples:

They were given a new TV for Christmas. (the TV is given, not 'they')
She was promised a pay rise by the boss. (the pay rise is promised, not 'she')

Present Perfect Continuous (Use)

 We use the present perfect continuous to talk about an action that started in the past and is either still continuing or recently finished.

I have been reading that new book of mine all morning.

We are more interested in the activity and cannot be sure from this sentence if the person has finished reading or not.

We often use this tense to say how long something has been happening.

I have been learning English for about five years.
John has been working for this company since last October.

Present Perfect Simple or Continuous?

Compare these sentences:

I've been repairing the TV for hours.
I've repaired the TV! Are you happy?

In the first, the activity is being spoken about and we are not sure if the TV is fixed yet or not. In the second, there is no doubt that it has been repaired.

I've been writing letters for two hours.
I've written four letters.

The present perfect continuous is often used to talk about how long. The present perfect simple to talk about how many.

You can't say I've been writing four letters.

I've lived in this town all my life.
I've been living with my girlfriend for a month.

The difference here is that the simple form is used to show permanence whereas the continuous form is used for a shorter period of time. There is a similar difference between the present continuous and the present simple.

Present Perfect Continuous (Structure)

 To make the present perfect continuous, we use the present perfect of the verb "to be" and then we use the main verb in the 'ing' form.

She has been working here for almost a year now.
We have been waiting here since over an hour ago!

Here is the verb read in all forms of the present perfect continuous.

Present Perfect Continuous
Positive	Negative	Question
I have been reading You have been reading He has been reading She has been reading It has been reading We have been reading You have been reading They have been reading	I haven't been reading You haven't been reading He hasn't been reading She hasn't been reading It hasn't been reading We haven't been reading You haven't been reading They haven't been reading	Have I been reading? Have you been reading? Has he been reading? Has she been reading? Has it been reading? Have we been reading? Have you been reading? Have they been reading?

Examples:

I have been washing the car. Look at it - isn't it spotless!
They have been wanting to get married for over five years.

You haven't been watching that terrible soap opera again have you!
She hasn't been studying hard enough and will fail the exams.

Have you been sitting here waiting for long?
Why have you been reading my letters?

Care about water

Plural Uncountable Nouns

Most uncountable nouns are singular in number. Therefore, we use the singular form of the verb with them.

• Don’t hurry – there is plenty of time. (NOT There are plenty of time.)
• Practice makes the man perfect. (NOT Practice make the man perfect.)

Uncountable nouns are often treated as countables if we are talking about different kinds of material, liquid etc.

• Most washing powders are not very kind to your hands.

Although powder is an uncountable noun, here we are talking about different kinds of the material.Abstract nouns are usually uncountable. Some abstract nouns can have both countable and uncountable uses. When used with a general meaning, these nouns are usually uncountable. When used with a particular meaning, these nouns are usually countable.

• We had a nice time when we went to the beach yesterday. (countable)
• I couldn’t finish the report because I didn’t get enough time. (uncountable)

Plural uncountables

Some uncountable nouns are plural. They have no singular forms with the same meaning, and cannot be used with numbers. Common examples are: groceries, arms, remains, goods, customs, clothes, thanks, regards, police etc.

• The police are searching for a white man in his twenties.
• Have you bought the groceries? (NOT Have you bought the grocery?)
• Many thanks for your help.

Other plural uncountable nouns include trousers, jeans, pyjamas, pants, scissors, spectacles etc.

Abstract Noun

An abstract noun is the name of a quality, action or state. Abstract nouns refer to ideas that we cannot see or touch.

Examples are given below.

Quality – goodness, kindness, beauty, intelligence, generosity, cleverness, obedience, honesty, brightness, wisdom, bravery, courage, hardness, softness

Action – laughter, theft, movement, judgment

State – childhood, boyhood, manhood, youth, slavery, sickness, poverty, death, sleep

The names of the arts and science are also abstract nouns. Examples are: physics, chemistry, grammar, music

Abstract nouns can be formed from adjectives, verbs and common nouns.

From adjectives

Kindness from kind

Bravery from brave

Illness from ill

Honesty from honest

From verbs

Obedience from obey

Growth from grow

Pleasure from please

From common nouns

Childhood from child

Slavery from slave

Tenses of different forms

Now read the following sentences:

* I write.
* I am writing.
* I have written.
* I have been writing.

The verbs in all of these sentences refer to the present time, and are, therefore, said to be in the present tense.

In sentence 1, however, the verb simply talks about the action. It doesn’t state whether the action is complete or not. The verb is therefore said to be in the simple present tense.

In sentence 2, the verb shows that the action is incomplete or continuous.The verb is therefore said to be in the present continuous tense.

In sentence 3, the verb shows that the action is finished, complete or perfect at the time of speaking. The verb is therefore said to be in the present perfect tense.

In sentence 4, the verb is said to be in the present perfect continuous tense because it shows that the action which started at some point of time in the past is still continuing at the moment of speaking.

Just as the present tense has four forms, the past tense also has four forms.

* I wrote. (Simple past tense)
* I was writing. (Past continuous tense)
* I had written (Past perfect tense)
* I had been writing. (Past perfect continuous tense)

Similarly, the future tense has the following four forms:

* I will/shall write. (Simple future tense)
* I will/shall be writing. (Future continuous tense)
* I will/shall have written. (Future perfect tense)
* I will/shall have been writing. (Future perfect continuous tense)

Noun Clause Exercises

Noun Clause

A noun clause is a group of words which contains a subject and a predicate of its own. A noun clause does the work of a noun.

• I hope that I will win the first prize.

Here the noun clause ‘that I will win the first prize’ acts as the object of the verb ‘hope’.
More examples of noun clauses are given below.

• That he is a brave man is admitted by all. (Here the noun clause ‘that he is a brave man’ acts as the subject of the verb ‘is’.)
• Everybody knows that he is an honest man. (Here the noun clause ‘that he is an honest man’ is the object of the verb ‘knows’.)
• There is no meaning in what you say. (Here the noun clause ‘what you say’ acts as the object of the preposition ‘in’.)
• His knowledge that he is honest gave him the courage to fight. (Here the noun clause ‘that he is honest’ is in apposition to the noun ‘knowledge’.)

Nouns

A noun is a word used as the name of a person, place or thing. There are different kinds of nouns. Read the following sentence:

• Solomon was a wise king.

Here the noun Solomon refers to a particular king, but the noun king may refer to any other king as well. Here Solomon is a proper noun and king is a common noun.

Similarly, Alice is a proper noun and girl is a common noun.
France is a proper noun and country is a common noun.

A proper noun is the name of a particular person or thing. A common noun is a name given in common to every person or thing of the same class or kind.

Note that proper nouns always begin with a capital letter. Common nouns include what are called collective nouns and abstract nouns.

Collective nouns

A collective noun is the name of a collection of persons or things taken together and spoken of as one whole.

Examples are: jury, committe, class, family, team, folk, fleet, nation etc.

An abstract noun is the name of a quality, action or state which we can only think of. Examples are: kindness, goodness, honesty, bravery, ignorance, stupidity, wisdom, laughter etc.

Note that the names of arts and sciences are also considered abstract nouns.

Abstract nouns are formed from adjectives, verbs or common nouns. For example, the abstract noun kindness is formed from the adjective kind whereas the abstract noun obedience is formed from the verb obey.

Countable and uncountable nouns

Nouns are also classified as countable and uncountable. Countable nouns are the names of objects that we can count. Examples are: book, pen, apple, doctor, sister, boy etc. Uncountable nouns are the names of things which we cannot count. Examples are: rice, gold, wheat, honesty, beauty, oil etc.
Note that countable nouns have plural forms and can be used with the indefinite article a/an. Uncountable nouns do not have plural forms and cannot be used with the indefinite articles.

Active or Passive Voice

Verbs can be active or passive. In the active voice, the subject is the doer. In the passive voice, the subject is the person or thing affected by the action of some other agent.

• The government approved the policy. (Active)
• The policy was approved by the government. (Passive)

There is nothing wrong with a passive construction, but if you can express the same idea using an active verb, you should do so. Passive forms show an unwillingness to shoulder responsibility. In several passive constructions the doer of the action is not mentioned at all.

• My father built this house. (Better than ‘This house was built by my father.’)

The passive voice is common in academic writing; however, it should be avoided in persuasive writing.

Don’t mix active and passive structures in the same sentence. If one clause is in the passive voice, the other, too, should be in the passive voice.

Cases where the passive voice is preferred

There are a few situations where the passive voice is particularly helpful.

The passive voice is used when we want to draw attention to the person or thing that was affected by the action of the subject.

• The unidentified victim was run over by a speeding truck.

Here the focus is on the person who was acted upon.

The passive voice is also preferred in cases where the doer is not important.

• The pyramids were built around 400 AD.

Here the focus is on the pyramids and not on the person(s) who built them and hence we prefer the passive voice.

Passive Verb Formation

The passive forms are created by combining a form of be with the past participle form of the main verb.

Make your writing more formal

While communicating with business people, the language you use must be consistently appropriate in style and tone.

The following are the basic features of formal writing.

Write all verbs in full. Do not use contracted forms like don’t or can’t.

Do not use abbreviations such as info (for information) and asap (for as soon as possible).

Limit the use of passive voice. However, there are some situations where passive verb forms are preferred to active forms. For example, active verb forms used with the first person singular are not considered appropriate in formal or academic writing. Write ‘A copy of the document will be mailed to you as soon as possible’ instead of ‘I will mail you a copy of the document asap’.

Watch your vocabulary. Certain words are considered informal. Examples are: fix, begin, start, OK, thanks etc. Avoid them in formal writing. Instead use words like repair (for fix), commence (for start / begin), in order / all right (for OK) and thank you (for thanks).

Avoid informal intensifiers like really and so. Instead use more sophisticated ones such as extremely, highly, entirely etc.

Limit the use of phrasal verbs. As far as possible avoid using them, but if that is not possible limit their use. It is usually possible to express the same idea using standard verb forms.

Certain discourse markers are considered informal. Avoid using them. For example, write incidentally instead of by the way.

Do not leave out words. Ellipsis is not acceptable in formal writing. Write ‘I hope to see you soon’ instead of ‘Hope to see you soon.’

Adverbs of degree

Adverbs of degree or quantity

Adverbs of degree answer the question ‘how much’ or ‘in what degree’ or ‘to
what extent’. Examples are: very, too, fully, quite, rather, enough, any, partly, almost, utterly, as, entirely etc.

• That was very tragic.
• I have almost finished.
• He was rather busy.
• Is he any good?
• You are partly right.
• You are entirely wrong.

Adverbs of reason

Adverbs of reason answer the question ‘why?’. Examples are: therefore, hence, consequently etc.

• Consequently he refused to go.
• Therefore they decided to boycott the meeting.
• He is hence unable to refute the charge.

Adverbs of affirmation or negation

Examples are: surely, certainly, not, probably, indeed etc.

• You are certainly right.
• I am not going.
• He is a fool indeed.

Interrogative adverbs

Adverbs which are used for asking questions are called interrogative adverbs.  Examples are: when, where, how, why etc.

• When will you go to New York? (Interrogative adverb of time)
• How long will you stay here? (Interrogative adverb of time)
• Where are my keys? (Interrogative adverb of place)
• How often does the committee meet? (Interrogative adverb of number)
• How did he behave? (Interrogative adverb of manner)
• How far did he go? (Interrogative adverb of quantity)
• Why did you resign? (Interrogative adverb of reason)

Relative adverbs

Read the following sentences:

Do you know the place where the meeting will be held?

In this sentence, where is an adverb as it modifies the verb will be held. Where is also a relative as it connects the two clauses of the sentence and at the same time refers back to its antecedent, place. Where is therefore called a relative adverb. Note that a relative adverb connects an adjective clause to the main clause.

Adverbs

Adverbs are words like now, then, today, tomorrow and carefully. An adverb modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Read the following sentences:

Alice smiled sweetly.
Those mangoes were very sweet.
He spoke quite loudly.

In sentence 1, the adverb quickly shows how (or in what manner) Alice smiled. It modifies the verb smiled.

In sentence 2, the adverb very says something about the sweetness of the mangoes. It modifies the adjective sweet.

In sentence 3, quite says something about the manner in which he spoke. It modifies the adverb loudly.
Note that adverbs standing at the beginning of sentences sometimes modify the whole sentence, rather than a particular word.

• Unfortunately no one was present there. (= It was unfortunate that no one was present there.)
• Probably I am mistaken. (= It is probable that I am mistaken.)

Kinds of adverbs
There are very many kinds of adverbs.

Adverbs of time
Adverbs of time answer the question ‘when’. Examples are: today, yesterday, now, before, daily, already, since, ago, never etc.

• I met him yesterday.
• His father died two years ago.
• I have seen him before.
• They have already come.
• We will have to start now.

Adverbs of frequency

Adverbs of frequency answer the question ‘how often’. Examples are: often, always, once, never, again, seldom, frequently etc.

• We seldom go out on Sundays.
• I have seen him only once.
• He called again this morning.
• We must always try to do our best.

Adverbs of place

Adverbs of place answer the question ‘where’. Examples are: here, there, up, down, everywhere, out, in etc.

• She sat down.
• He looked up.
• I searched for him everywhere.
• Come in.

Adverbs of manner
Adverbs of manner answer the question ‘how’ or ‘in what manner’. Note that this class includes nearly all those adverbs ending in -ly. Examples are:
quickly, carefully, sweetly, clearly, bravely, beautifully, well, fast etc.

• The soldiers fought bravely.
• This essay is well written.
• she walked slowly.
• The baby slept soundly.