I have the following sentences:
- A Struct's member can't be defined as abstract, virtual or protected.
- It is also called as Rectangular Arrays.
I need to convert them into active voice.
Can someone help me out, I am unable to do it.
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1Maybe you can tell us why you need to do this conversion. It could be that you are trying to follow misguided or misunderstood advice.– ShoeMar 2, 2019 at 9:02
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If you want to use the passive voice you'll need an agent, which those two sentences don't have. The agent performs the verb. Many things can act as the agent. Example "he", "Tejaswi" or a noun phrase, as in "Many laws" in "Many laws criminalized gambling" instead of "Gambling was criminalized."– ZebrafishMar 2, 2019 at 9:05
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Why do you need to convert them?– BillJMar 2, 2019 at 9:28
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I was asked to test a passive voice detector tool and when I gave random text from the net, It highlighted these sentences. As its Saturday I don't have anyone from the English department to test the inputs I was giving.So i got hold up with it.– Tejaswi PandavaMar 2, 2019 at 10:38
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Where did the second sentence come from? "It is called as..." is not a normal, colloquial form. It could easily make sense as part of a mathematical or computing article but not as normal conversation.– BoldBenMar 2, 2019 at 11:17
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1 Answer
The passive voice without an agent is normally used when the real subject is unknown or unimportant, as shown by OP's examples (1) and (2).
The only possible way in which those two sentences can be turned into the active form consists of using an impersonal subject like "one", "you" or "we":
- A Struct's member can't be defined as abstract, virtual or protected.
1a. One can't define a Struct's member as abstract, virtual or protected.
1b. You can't define a Struct's member as abstract, virtual or protected.
1c. We can't define a Struct's member as abstract, virtual or protected.
With (2) in the present simple, conversion to the active voice does not seem so natural. The most acceptable form, in my opinion, would be rendered by the use of "we":
- It is also called as Rectangular Arrays.
2a. We also call it Rectangular Arrays.
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By any chance are you aware of any good site for learning more on this topic? Mar 2, 2019 at 10:39
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1I'm a bit doubtful as to whether rendering "It is also called as Rectangular Arrays" as "We also call it Rectangular Arrays" is actually correct. As I suggested in a comment to the OP it sounds to me like a part of a mathematical or computing article. If "it" is a subroutine, function, applet, Object or other piece of code which can be invoked using more than one name then saying "We also call it Rectangular Arrays" is saying something different from the original.– BoldBenMar 2, 2019 at 11:27
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@BoldBen Let's agree that "it is also called as..." looks strange, if not altogether wrong. The correct form would be ""it is also known as..." That's why I eliminated "as" from the active sentence. Mar 2, 2019 at 11:31
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1Another way is to use an infinitive: To define a struct's member as abstract is ...– TimRMar 2, 2019 at 11:41