Passive voice

I. AUXILARY VERB: BE

but sometimes you can use GET instead of BE to say that smt. happens to smb. or smt., especially if this is unplanned or unexpected.

· The dog got run over by a car.

Negative forms & questions are formed with do \ does, did:

· What did the dog get run over by?

GET is often used with certain past participle:

GET engaged, married, divorced, changed, lost, killed, dressed, elected, hit, drunk

· verbs with no direct object (intransitive verbs) cannot be used in the passive:

appear, arrive, be, behave, fit, get, have, happen, lack, originate, possess, resemble, seem, suit, travel, etc.

· but we say was \ were born (not get)

Shakespeare was born in 1564.

II. If we want to say who or what did the action, we may use

Ø by + agent

· The radio was invented by Marconi.

· Stones were thrown by angry football fans.

· A number of trees were blown down by the strong winds.

Ø with + instrument \ thing

· I was hit with an umbrella.

· The windows were broken with a baseball bit.

III. There are a great number of verbs in English that require a prepositional object. When these verbs are used in Passive the preposition retains its place after the verb.

· This film is much spoken about.

· She could feel she was being looked at and it pleased her.

· The key is being looked for everywhere.

· His book has been referred to several times.

· Our teacher is always listened to attentively.

IV. Verbs that can be followed by either object + object or object + prepositional object in active clauses can have two corresponding passive forms

I was handed the plate.

She handed the plate to me.

The plate was handed to me.

However, verbs that can't be followed by object + object in the active have only one of those passive forms. Verbs like this include: address, announce, describe, dictate, explain, mention, propose, suggest, translate, dedicate, devote, point out.

The subject in this case is the prepositional object

I was described the situation.

He described the situation to me.

The situation was described to me.

Варианты перевода:
1. соответствующей страдательной конструкцией	This house was built in 1939.
2. возвратным глаголом (с постсуффиксом –сь, ся)	The new house is being built in our street.
3. подлежащее – дополнением, сказуемое – безличной формой	The child is being dressed.
4. действительным залогом	His bed wasn’t slept by him.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14