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.  EyeSeeYou Joined on Tue, Dec 21 2004 Full Member 212 Present Perfect

	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. EyeSeeYou Present Perfect

	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. Marius Hancu Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006 Veteran Member 11,673 Present Perfect

	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  CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,393 "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. New2grammar Joined on Tue, Nov 21 2006 Veteran Member 7,676 Who wants to go sailing around the world with me? Present Perfect

	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 Cool Breeze Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006 Senior Member 3,970 "I hope you'll all live to be 150 years old - and the last voice you hear is mine!" Frank Sinatra on stage in Oslo, Norway, 28 September 1991 Present Perfect

	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! khoff Joined on Sun, Mar 6 2005 Senior Member 3,266 Native speaker of American English (but not a grammar expert) Conversations, Present Perfect