There are some structures which carry a passive meaning in spite of the verb being active.

Summary 5-5

Review Passive Voice

When is it used?

Use the passive when you want to talk about an action but you are not so interested in saying who or what does/ did the action.

If you want to mention the person or thing that did the action (the agent), use by

# Prison sentences are decided by judges.

With is used when we talk about an instrument which is used by an agent to do an action (with a knife)

However, in the majority of passive sentences the agent is not mentioned.

	Past	Present	Future
Simple	It was sung by him. It wasn't sung by him.	It is sung by him. It isn't sung by him.	It will be sung by him. It won't be sung by him.
Continuous	It was being sung by him. It wasn't being sung by him.	It is being sung by him. It isn't being sung by him.	-
Perfect	It had been sung by him. It hadn't been sung by him.	It has been sung by him. It hasn't been sung by him.	It will have been sung by him. It won't have been sung by him.
Perfect Continuous	-	-	-

Exercise in writing

Use the correct form of the verb (Active or Passive)

1. All the bills ________________ (already/pay) so now we can spend the rest of the money on whatever we ________________ (like).

2. Last time the wood ________________ (chop) before it (deliver) to us.

3. An interesting event________________ (discuss) on the radio now.

4. We ________________ (not/know) then that they ________________ (take) to the garage.

5. The crop________________ (gather) in by farmers in September or October.

6. The song that ________________ (sound) right now ________________ (broadcast) at least three times today.

7. A substitute teacher ________________ (just/appoint) as our previous teacher _____________ (take) to hospital as she________________ (fall) and ________________ (break) her leg.

Active verbs expressing passive

Translate: Новый iPhone не продается так же хорошо, как старый

There are 2 possible translations (isn’t sold or doesn’t sell).Why?

There are some structures which carry a passive meaning in spite of the verb being active.

a) The verbs clean, open, read, sell, show, wake, wash, wear (and some others) even when used in active might have a passive meaning if the object is placed as the subject:

# This pullover washes well. OR This pullover can be washed easily.

Have you heard that Cook’s latest book is not selling so well? OR Not many copies are being sold.

b) Active gerunds after need, require and want also have passive meanings: In the passive want cannot be used.

# This plan needs/requires/wants thinking over. OR This plan needs/requires to be thought over.

(NOT This plan wants to be thought over.)

Train. Give 2 possible variants:

Эта книга хорошо читается.

Пальто будет носиться всю жизнь.

Эти новые кастрюли легко чистятся.

! меняется глагол Брюки починили, и теперь дыра не видна.

! меняется глагол На двери было написано «не входить».

Стены нужно покрасить.

C этим нужно осторожно обращаться

Собаку нужно покормить.

Homework for the 8-th of October

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