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Energy and Matter: Part One: The Passive Voice: Simple Tense

This document discusses the passive voice in English grammar. It explains that the passive voice focuses on the object of the sentence rather than the subject or agent. It provides examples of sentences in the active and passive voice in the present, past, and continuous tenses. It also discusses using the preposition "by" to indicate the agent when important to the meaning. The document is intended as a lecture on grammar for an English class at a university in Indonesia.

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28 views4 pages

Energy and Matter: Part One: The Passive Voice: Simple Tense

This document discusses the passive voice in English grammar. It explains that the passive voice focuses on the object of the sentence rather than the subject or agent. It provides examples of sentences in the active and passive voice in the present, past, and continuous tenses. It also discusses using the preposition "by" to indicate the agent when important to the meaning. The document is intended as a lecture on grammar for an English class at a university in Indonesia.

Uploaded by

syarven joni
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Energy and Matter

The passive voice


Part one: The passive voice: Simple Tense

Most transitive verb (verb that take an object) can be used in the passive
voice as well as in the active voice. In sentences in the active voice, primary focus
in the subject (the agent or doer of the Action).To Give primary focus to the
object, use the passive voice. The passive voices occurs in both spoken and
written English, But it is most frequently used in technical or scientific writing.

PRESENT
Active
Geologists find oil all over The object in the active
The word. Voice is the subject in the
Corresponding sentence
In the passive voice.

Passive
Oil is found by geologies The agent(active-voice subject)
All over the word is sometime included in passive –
Voice sentence to tell who or what
PAST Performance the Action. The verb be
Active is singular or plural depending
The workers transported the Be also shoe the tens of the passive
Oil on donkeys. Sentence.
Passive
The oil was transported on donkeys.
BY + AGENT

By + noun or pronoun can be used in passive sentence to tell who or what


performance the actions of the verb. However, most passive sentence in English
do not contain these phrases. Use by + agent only if the phrase gives :
Information that is
Important to the
Meaning of the sentence.
The oil was formed by heat By + agen must be used
And pressure. If the sentence is meaning
Less without it.

A particular name or
Idea that is important
In the context.
Arabia’s First large oil
Field Were discovered in
1923 by Socal, an American
Company.

Part two: The passive voice: perfect tense.

Present tense.
Active Smog has plagued Los Angeles since the 1950s.
Passive Los Angeles has been plagued by smog since the 1950s.

Past perfect.
Active People had generally ignored the problem until the 1960s.
Passive The problem had generally been ignored until the 1960s.
Part Three: The passive voice: Continuous tenses

Present continuous
Active Scientists are researching the problem.
Passive The problem is being researched

Past continuous
Active Scientists Were researching the problem in 1975.
Passive The problem was being researched in 1975.

Part four: The passive voice


With Modal auxiliaries.
Simple
Active We could conserve more oil today.
Passive More oil could be conserved today.
Perfect
Active We could have conserved more oil last year.
Passive More oil could have been conserved today.
GRAMMAR
ENERGY AND MATTER

By

1. YORI SURYA HARIYANTI


2. WERISA GUSNITA
3. YANCE

LECTURE: SONYA IQLIMA, S.Pd

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MAHAPUTRA MUHAMMAD YAMIN UNIVERSITY
SOLOK
2011

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