The use of tenses in the Passive Voice.

The uses of tenses in the Active and in the Passive Voice are the same.

INDEFINITE	Present	New schools are builtevery year.
Past	This school was builta month ago.
Future	A new school will be builtin our village in spring.
PERFECT	Present	The school has been builtthis month.
Past	The school had been builtby the 1st of Sep­tember.
Future	I am sure the school will have been builtby the 1st of September.
CONTINUOUS	Present	A new school is being builtin our street.
Past	When I returned to town, the school wasstill being built.

All Forsytes have shells... in other words, they are never seen, or if seen would not be recognized. (Galsworthy)

The news was brought that the little boy at the "Three Castles" was ill. (Thackeray)

Further meetings will be held tonight and tomorrow night. (Daily Worker)

You have been told three times this week that she is coming home for a year for her health. (Shaw)

I have been very unhappy since she died. I have been slighted and taught nothing, and thrown upon myself, and put to work not fit for me. (Dickens)

By 12 o'clock a jury reasonably satisfactory to both sides had been chosen. (Dreiser)

Don't you disturb him. He is working at his wonderful poem. An immortal work of art is being created. (Marryat)

When Mills got to the stables, a horse was being saddled. (Eliot)

To express an action going on at a definite moment in the future only the Future Continuous Active is possible. Thus the Russian sentence 'Когда вы придете в лабораторию, опыт уже будет производиться' must be translated in the following way:

When you come to the laboratory, we'll be already making the experiment.

To denote an action which began before a definite moment in the present, past or future, and continued up to that moment, the Present, Past and Future Perfect Continuous Active are generally used.

Уже два часа как правят корректуру. — They have been read­ing the proofs for two hours.

Когда пришел главный редактор, корректуру правили уже два часа. — When the editor-in-chief came, they had been reading the proofs for two hours.

The Present Perfect Inclusive Passive and the Past Perfect Inclusive Passive are found with verbs not used in the Continuous form, in nega­tive sentences and with some non-terminative verbs (see Chapter VII, Tenses, § 18, 21).

She has always been admired.

The dictionary has not been used for months.

§ 4. Ways of translating the Passive Voice into Russian.

There are three ways of translating the Passive Voice into Rus­sian:

(a) by the verb быть + краткая форма причастия страдательного залога. In the Present the verb быть is not used.

(b) by verbs in -ся.

(c) by means of indefinite-personal constructions (неопределен­но-личные предложения).

The last way of translating is possible only if the doer of the action is not mentioned.

Houses are built of stone. — Дома строятся из камня. Дома строят из камня.

The house was built in 1932. — Дом (был) построен в 1932 году. Дом построили в 1932 году.

The experiment was made by a famous scientist. — Опыт был произведен знаменитым ученым. Опыт производился знаменитым ученым.

§ 5. Uses of the Passive Voice peculiar to the English language.

There are cases when the use of the Passive Voice seems to Russian students very peculiar because we find no analogous constructions in Russian. These cases are as follows:

1. The verbs to accord, to advise, to allow, to ask, to award, to deny, to envy, to forbid (rare), to forgive, to give, to grant, to offer, to order, to pay, to prescribe, to promise, to refuse, to show, to teach, to tell are used in the Passive Voice. These verbs always take an object expressed by a noun or an infinitive. The action expressed by the Passive Predicate passes on to the subject and the object. The subject corresponds to the Russian indirect object.

He was granted a ten days' leave. Has he been shown the documents? The patient was prescribed a strict diet. He was ordered a change of scene. We were told to wait.

Note. These verbs admit of another type of passive construction if the object is expressed by a noun. Thus we can say not only / was given a book, He was shown a book, but also A book was given to me, A book was shown to him. The choice of the construction depends on the logical stress: in / was given a book, He was shown a book the thing given is emphasized, which occurs oftener; in The book was given to me, The book was shown to him the person is emphasized.

2. The Passive Voice is possible with intransitive verbs used with prepositions: to account for, to agree upon, to allude to, to arrive at (a conclusion, agreement, decision), to call for, to call upon, to comment upon, to count upon, to depend on (upon), to dispose of, to fire at, to hear of, to insist on (upon), to interfere with, to laugh at, to listen to, to look after, to look at, to look down upon (смотреть на кого-либо сверху вниз), to look up to (смотреть на кого-либо снизу вверх), to provide for, to put up at (остановиться), to put up with (примириться), to read to, to refer to, to rely on, to run over, to send for, to speak about (of), to stare at, to talk about (to, over).

At last an agreement was arrived at.

Her strange behaviour was largely commented upon.

He can be depended upon to keep strict silence.

This is certainly a great inconvenience, but it must be put up with.

The article is often referred to.

Steerforth was looked up to by all the boys.

The phrasal verb to do away with the preposition with can be used in the Passive Voice.

In our country illiteracy was done away with many years ago.

Note. To send for can be used only in connection with people.

The doctor was sent for. The secretary will be sent for.

'Послать за лекарством (книгой)' should be translated in the following way: to send somebody to get the medicine (the book). But we can say: Л car (a cab, a taxi) was sent for.

3. The following verbal phraseological units can be used in the Pas­sive Voice: to find fault with (придираться, находить недостатки), to lose sight о/(терять из виду), to make fun of to make use о/(использовать), to pay attention to, to put an end to (положить конец), to set fire to, to take notice of to take care of

The poor child was always being found fault with.

Soon the boat was lost sight of.

He was exceedingly absent-minded and was always made fun of.

His remarks were taken no notice of.

The discussion was put an end to by his sudden arrival.

4. Quite peculiar is the case when the subject of the passive predicate corresponds to the Russian adverbial modifier. This is the case with the intransitive verbs to live and to sleep with the preposition in.

The bed was not slept in. The room is not lived in.

5. There are a number of transitive verbs in English which corre­spond to intransitive verbs in Russian. They are: to affect, to answer, to assist, to attend, to follow, to help, to influence, to join, to watch.

These verbs naturally admit of the passive construction while their Russian equivalents cannot be used in the Passive Voice.

She was greatly affected by the scene.

The report was followed by a discussion.

Walter Scott's poetry was strongly influenced by the popular ballads.

Such sentences are rendered in Russian by indefinite-personal sentences (неопределенно-личные предложения) unless the doer of the action is mentioned. In the latter case either the Active Voice is used, which occurs rather seldom, or the Passive Voice (consisting of the verb быть + краткая форма причастия страдательного залога).

Не was granted ten days' leave. — Ему дали десятидневный отпуск.

At last an agreement was arrived at. — Наконец пришли к соглашению.

The bed was not slept in. — В постели не спали.

The poor child was always being found fault with. — К бедному ребенку всегда придирались.

Steerforth was looked up to by all the boys. — Все мальчики смотрели на Стирфорта снизу вверх.

§ 6. The verb to be + Participle II.

The combination to be + Participle II can denote an action, in which case it is a simple predicate expressed by a verb in the Passive Voice. It can also denote a state, then it is a compound nominal predicate consisting of a link verb and a predicative. Thus, Passive Voice construc­tions can be subdivided into Passive Voice constructions of action and Passive Voice constructions of state.

As the director was ill, the documents were signed by his as­sistant. (Were signed denotes an action.) When I came, the papers were signed and lay on the secretary's table. (Were signed denotes a state.)

The compound nominal predicate expressed by the verb to be and Participle II can be translated only by the verb быть + краткая форма причастия страдательного залога. In the Present the verb быть is not used.

The statue is broken. — Статуя разбита. When I came, the papers were signed and lay on the secretary's table. — Когда я пришел, документы были подписаны и ле­жали на столе у секретаря.

The use of tenses is closely connected with these meanings of the combination to be + Participle II.

When I came up to the gate, it was already locked. — Когда я подошел к воротам, они уже были заперты. (The predicate indicates the state of the gate at a given moment.)

When I came up to the gate, it had already been locked. — Когда я подошел к воротам, их уже заперли. (The predicate indicates an action completed before a definite moment in the past.)

Don't try to open the gate. It is locked. — He пытайтесь открыть ворота. Они заперты. (state)

It has just been locked. — Их только что заперли, (action)

It is sometimes difficult to discriminate between the verb to be + Participle II as a simple predicate and as a compound nominal predicate.

1. We have the Passive Voice (simple predicate) in the following cases:

(a) when the doer of the action is indicated (as a rule).

They were thus introduced by Holly. (Galsworthy)

(b) when there is an adverbial modifier of place, frequency and, as a rule, of time.

Pravda is published in Moscow.

Good books are quickly sold.

The documents were signed a few minutes ago.

(c) when the verb is used in the Continuous or in the Perfect form.

Some efforts were even then being made to cut this portion of the wreck away. (Dickens)

Ever since that, the cannon business has always been left to an adopted foundling named Andrew Undershaft. (Shaw)

2. We have a compound nominal predicate in the following cases:

(a) usually when the verb to be is in the Present or Past Perfect Inclusive and the notional verb admits of the Continuous form.

Why don't you go and take the documents? They are ready. They have been typed these two hours. — Документы готовы. Уже два часа как они напечатаны.

Our things had been packed for two hours and we were impa­tiently pacing up and down the room when at last we heard the sound of wheels. — Вещи уже два часа как были упакованы, и мы в нетерпении ходили взад и вперед по комнате, когда наконец услышали стук колес.

(b) when Participle II denotes a state of mind. In this case the predicate is compound even if there is an object introduced by the preposition by. This object does not denote the doer of an action but the cause of the state.

He was frightened by the remark.

He was oppressed by a sense of loneliness.

When these criteria cannot be applied the context itself helps to decide whether the predicate is a simple or a compound nominal one.

WEEK 2. Topic: The Education. Systems of formal education in Kazakhstan and Russia

Grammar: The emphatic constructions

Практических занятий – 6час., СРОП- 6час., СРО- 6час.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

TOPICAL VOCABULARY

COLLEGE LIFE

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