PASSIVE VOICE with Present Perfect Continuous

1 2
   Share on Facebook  
EyeSeeYou  #542920  Fri, 18 Jul 08 04:47 AM
Joe has been kicking that ball for the past 5 years.

How would you turn it into Passive Voice?

I'd say: The ball has been kicked by Joe for the past 5 years
  
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on Tue, Dec 21 2004
Full Member (186)
anabel_swe  #542923  Fri, 18 Jul 08 05:12 AM
Or maybe "that ball has been..."?
  
Not Ranked
Joined on Sun, Jun 1 2008
New Member (03)
EyeSeeYou  #543175  Fri, 18 Jul 08 06:33 PM
Lol. Yes, you're right. A little mistake.

My point is if there's other way to do this to emphasize the continuous form found in active voice.
  
Marius Hancu  #543183  Fri, 18 Jul 08 06:44 PM
Or:

Soccer balls have been kicked by Joe for the past 5 years.

In one place or another, a soccer ball has been kicked by Joe  for the past 5 years.

  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006
Montreal, Canada
Veteran Member (11,673)
Proficient Speaker
CalifJim  #543186  Fri, 18 Jul 08 06:47 PM
EyeSeeYou
Joe has been kicking that ball for the past 5 years.
 

EyeSeeYou
The ball has been kicked by Joe for the past 5 years
Not quite.

That ball has been being kicked by Joe for the past five years.

CJ 

  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004
California
Veteran Member (16,975)
ModeratorProficient Speaker
"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche
New2grammar  #543254  Fri, 18 Jul 08 11:35 PM
CJ, isn't this very similar to my question. It sounds like Joe has been continuously kicking the ball for the past 5 years.
  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Tue, Nov 21 2006
Veteran Member (7,670)
Who wants to go sailing around the world with me?
EyeSeeYou  #543529  Sat, 19 Jul 08 02:31 PM
CJ: That's what I wanted to know, if that form existed. Sounds odd, though.
  
Cool Breeze  #543538  Sat, 19 Jul 08 02:50 PM
EyeSeeYou
Joe has been kicking that ball for the past 5 years.

How would you turn it into Passive Voice?

 

The continuous perfect is incorrect in the passive. In other words, your sentence cannot be changed into the passive.

CB

  
Top 50 Contributor
Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006
Helsinki, Finland
Senior Member (2,856)
Proficient SpeakerTrusted Users
The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain
khoff  #543569  Sat, 19 Jul 08 04:24 PM

Cool Breeze

The continuous perfect is incorrect in the passive. In other words, your sentence cannot be changed into the passive.

CB

But -- CJ just did it.   I would say it doesn't sound very natural in the passive, but what's "incorrect" about CJ's version? (That ball has been being kicked by Joe for the past five years)

I think a more colloquial, more natural sounding version would be "That ball has been getting kicked by Joe for five years."

And I don't think either of these passive forms imply five years of continuous ball-kicking any more than the original (active voice) sentence does.

Just my 2 cents' worth.

 P.S.  This is weird -- when I first read the original post (how would you put this sentence into the pasive voice), my reaction was "Why would you want to?  It would be "That ball has been being kicked...." but it sounds awful.  Don't do it."  But then, as soon as CB said you can't do it, I immediately wanted to defend the passive voice version.  So I guess I would say you can put into passive voice, but a native speaker probably wouldn't in ordinary conversation.

CJ-- do you like my "getting kicked" variation?

P.P.S.  -- I love this board!

  
Top 50 Contributor
Joined on Sun, Mar 6 2005
Denver, Colorado, USA, Earth
Senior Member (2,569)
ModeratorProficient Speaker
Native speaker of American English (but not a grammar expert)
1 2
AddThis Feed Button RSS Feed: ESL General English Grammar Questions
© 2008 MediaCET Ltd.
Terms and Conditions & Terms of Service