Search results for 'tag:Present simple tag:Passive sentences' matching tags 'Present simple' and 'Passive sentences'

active\passive

Newguest — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 12:57:59 GMT

Active sentence: Somebody stole my bicycle.

Passive sentence: My bicycle has been stolen.

Is the passive sentence OK, in your opinion? I would write: My bicycle was (simple past) stolen.

As far as I know if the active sentence is written in simple past than the passive one should also be written in simple past?

One more question. I never know whether I should write it with the definite article or not: present simple, simple present, present simple tense etc. Should I put the "the" before each of them or always omit it?

thanks

Re: present simple after adjective

Yankee — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:13:58 GMT

Hi Musesun

"This forbidden to make money in the university" is not a correct sentence. The word "forbidden" is not a tense at all -- it is just the past participle (V3) of the verb 'forbid'. You can say "This is forbidden", but you cannot say "This forbidden".

Have you learned how to make passive sentences yet? That seems to be what is confusing you.
The following pairs of sentences have the same meanings. The second sentence in each pair is the passive form of the first sentence:

Cowboys ride horses. = simple present tense, active voice
Horses are ridden by cowboys. = simple present tense, passive voice

He wrote that book. = simple past tense, active voice
That book was written by him. = simple past tense, passive voice

In addition to what I've written above, the past participle can also be used as an adjective. For example:
That is a forbidden activity. = That activity is forbidden.

Sometimes it is difficult to decide whether a past participle has been used as an adjective or is part of a passive verb construction.

Re: Correct order in which to parse a verb?

Garnett — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 14:29:51 GMT

Mister Micawber wrote:

Future Simple (I will sit)
Future Continuous/Progressive (I will be sitting)
Future Perfect (I will have sat")
Present Simple (I sit)
Past Simple (I sat)
Past Continuous/Progressive (I was sitting)
Past Perfect (I had sat)
Past Perfect Continuous/Progressive (I had been sitting)

Any I've missed? -- See VERB FORMS

Also can you hjelp me with Moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative. -- See VERB MOODS

In Latin you use the Jussive Subjuntive for sentences like "Let them eat cake", or "Let's go to the park". What is this construction in English? This is a causative imperative (I think).

Awesome. Thanks for those references.

Mister Micawber wrote:
"The bus stop was situated outside the airport - 3rd person singular, passive (or more probably active with the linking verb be and a predicate adjective), indicative." Are you parsing "be" here, then? -- Yes

Cool. That's what I thought.

Mister Micawber wrote:
Just because "situated" is being used as a participle adjective here, doesn't mean it can't be parsed like any other verb. It is a PPP isn't it - past passive participle? -- Not if it is an adjective.

I disagree.

In "the flying machine", "flying" can be parsed (at least partially) - Active present participle.

Participle Adjective: "A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective, as the past participle baked in We had some baked beans, and is used with an auxiliary verb to indicate tense, aspect, or voice, as the past participle baked in the passive sentence The beans were baked too long." ~ from Dictionary.com.

Is it a verb being used as an Adjective, or an out-and-out adjective? Frfom the definition above I would argue the former.

Mister Micawber wrote:
Don't confuse form and function. It is wisest to call it simply an -ed verb form

I think that's the crux.

Have you sen my thread here?

What are your thoughts?

I believe "stood" can replace "situated" in the sentence "I was situated at the bus stop".

"Situated" is defined in the dictionary as an adjective in its own right. "Stood" is not.

It appears then, to hinge on whether "situated" is a adjective "with the linking verb be and a predicate adjective" or whether it is a "participle adjective" that could be replaced by any other participle adjective like "stood"...