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Are they passive verb forms?

General English Grammar & Vocabulary,... » ESL General English Grammar Questions

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Latest post Mon, Oct 30 2006 4:35 PM by Tam Sadek. 1 replies.
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MyShirley  +  287298 Mon, 30 Oct 06 08:39 AM

E.g.: The auspiciouos red colour and the deafening noises were intended to scare the monster away.

E.g.: Other practices of the festival are also meant to bring good luck.

Are the underlined verbs passive ?

How can you change them in active form?

Thanks
MyShirley
Joined on Thu, Jan 26 2006
Full Member 239
Tam Sadek  +  287487 Mon, 30 Oct 06 04:35 PM
Yes they are...

As there is no agent in either of these passives, they cannot be changed to active sentences without guess work as to who the agents(s) might be as they are clearly not important.

This is probably why the passive voiced was used in the first place, so why would you want to change them to active?

Don't think that all English sentences are swappable between passive and active voice. The two different voices perform different functions in English and one is chosen over the other for a reason...

Consider the following:

Your credit card has been cancelled... (passive)

I have cancelled your credit card... (active)

Which one do you think a bank manager would send to a client/customer?

Hope that helps...
Tam Sadek
Joined on Wed, Oct 4 2006
Full Member 265
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