2015-11-03 Grammar: passives

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
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Has Earth been visited by aliens? = Have aliens visited Earth?
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Active Voice vs. Passive Voice

Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. (I’m talking about da Vinci.)
The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. (I’m talking about the Mona Lisa.)

The painting was stolen in 1911 by an Italian who thought it should be in Italy and not France.

Oh no! My car has been stolen! (I don’t know who did it, so I can only talk about the car.)
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Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.
subject: Leonardo da Vinci
object (of a verb): the Mona Lisa
agent: Leonardo da Vinci
(patient: the Mona Lisa)

The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
subject: the Mona Lisa
object (of a preposition): Leonardo da Vinci
agent: Leonardo da Vinci
(patient: the Mona Lisa)
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agent = the person or thing that did the action
patient = the person or thing that received the action
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Passive voice is only possible with transitive verbs (verbs that have objects).

I killed the spider.
The spider was killed (by me).
(if there is an object, we can make a passive sentence)

The spider died. (no object, so we can’t use passive)
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Stonehenge (England)
Moai Statues (Easter Island)

For 5 minutes, look up information about your structure. Then explain what you can remember to your partner. (especially: builders, when built, reason for building, mysteries about building)

Earthworks are constructions which were made from dirt and stone (from the Earth).
Stonehenge was built during the bronze age between 3000 and 2000 BCE.

The Moai were built by the Rapa Nui people between 1250 and 1500 CE.
They may have been built for religious reasons, but we’re not sure.
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I drop my pencil every day. -> My pencil is dropped every day.
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Homework: find five active sentences in the Wikipedia article you looked at today and rewrite them as passive sentences

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai