The passive voice is a grammatical construction (a "voice") in which the subject of a sentence or clause denotes the recipient of the action (the patient) rather than the performer (the agent).
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Passive clauses without auxiliaries
Sentences such as I came across a letter that was typed by her secretary, can be "reduced" by removing that and the auxiliary verb, yielding I came across a letter typed by her secretary. In this ...
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Passive of “tried to eat”
OK, so I'm trying to complete the following analogy:
John ate the worms.
is to
The worms were eaten.
as
John tried to eat the worms.
is to
The worms were tried to be eaten.
or
...
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3answers
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When do you use “is being” in English?
When should I use is being in English?
For example, do you say "something is changed," or "something is being changed"?
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4answers
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What is the grammatically correct form of Present Perfect Continuous in the passive voice? Does it exist?
Can the passive voice be correctly used for sentences in the Present Perfect Continuous tense?
I understand Present Perfect and its passive voice (have/has built, has been built). However, the ...
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1answer
356 views
The usage of “being” in passive voice
I was reading the following sentence on the Internet and did not understand the usage of "being" in it:
They might have been being thrown away.
"They" refers to spoons here. I guess it is the ...
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7answers
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Is using passive voice “bad form”?
Whenever I create a document in Microsoft Word, it complains about a lot of my sentences being in passive voice. But, when I read that sentence aloud, it sounds fine to me. I am not sure if it is just ...
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3answers
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Is the sentence “It is removed” grammatically correct?
There is another form of the same sentence — "It has been removed".
But in the sentence "It is removed," the last word is an adjective so I believe it is correct as well. Am I right?
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1answer
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Which transitive verbs can form notional passives?
Could someone please tell me which transitive verbs can form notional passives? I only know that they are usually formed with intransitive active verbs.
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4answers
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Phrase: “This area is being supervised by video”. Can “video” really supervise?
In the city of Potsdam I have seen the following label on the main station building: "This area is being supervised by video".
The meaning of the phrase is pretty clear, but can "video" be really ...
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2answers
140 views
“Canalized” usage in “a great impact which can also be canalized”
I'm in doubt if this is the correct usage of the word canalized:
In the US a researching team found that pure entertainment, such as TV series or movies, have a great impact which can also be ...
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6answers
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Use of “I”, “we” and the passive voice in a scientific thesis [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Style Question: Use of “we” vs. “I” vs. passive voice in a dissertation
When the first person voice is used in scientific writing it is mostly ...
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votes
4answers
638 views
How to change this to active voice?
The matter was reported to the commissioner.
My teacher told me that it should be
The commissioner reported the matter.
But I think that this is not correct since it implies the ...
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3answers
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Is it recommended to use “we” in research papers?
Is it recommended to use "we" in research papers? If not, should I always use passive voice?
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1answer
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Active or passive verbs
What is the difference between the following sentences:
This product is sold very well.
This product sells very well.
If the meaning is the same, what pragmatic difference is there?
2
votes
1answer
500 views
“Passive voice” versus “passive construction” versus “passive sentence” versus “passive form”
I've been living in japan so long I don't remember how to speak English.
On some websites the authors uses the phrase "passive form"
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/activepassive.html.
While here ...
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vote
2answers
95 views
Does “was forced” automatically imply some identifiable external activity?
In the following sentence
The citizens were forced to render up their town to the conqueror.
what does were forced mean exactly?
Does it mean that some proactive party literally forced the ...
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5answers
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3answers
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Style Question: Use of “we” vs. “I” vs. passive voice in a dissertation
As I'm not a native speaker and just finishing my dissertation in Computer Science, I wonder what style I should be using.
In German (my native tongue) most dissertations, school-books and scientific ...
0
votes
2answers
238 views
How to associate a participle with an exact word in a sentence like 'List of items'?
I have a problem with a sentence "A list of items grouped by category".
There are two possible ways to understand this sentence:
(A list of items) that is grouped by category
A list of (items that ...
21
votes
1answer
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“The ticket is printing” vs “…is being printed”
You're standing in front of a ticket vending machine and it says "The ticket is printing". Is that correct or should it be "The ticket is being printed"?
EDIT:
If both are correct, which one should ...
1
vote
1answer
1k views
“Testing started” versus “testing has been started”
I wish to notify my colleagues that they may start testing because I have prepared the environment. Among the many ways to say this, I wonder whether I can say simply Testing started or Testing has ...
10
votes
4answers
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Why is “to get” sometimes used where “to be” could be used?
Why is "to get" sometimes used where "to be" could be used?
Examples:
"The video got uploaded to the web site." vs. "The video was uploaded to the web site."
"He got thrown in the pool." vs. "He ...
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votes
0answers
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When to use passive and active voice [closed]
When is it better to use passive voice in writing and speech?
When is it better to use active voice in writing and speech?
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votes
3answers
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What should I use instead of “prefixed with”?
When I want to report that a function name needs to start with a prefix, I write the function name must be prefixed with; when I do so, the spelling and grammar checker suggests me to rewrite the ...
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9answers
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How can I reliably and accurately identify the passive voice in writing or speech?
How can I reliably and accurately identify the passive voice in writing or speech? I'm not interested in advice about whether or not to use it yet... I just want to know for sure what it is, so that I ...
