To be + P.P

[nesyan]

To be + past participle

to be taken
to be told
and so on

here is an example from a childish story

" the king was so happy, he ordered the cat to be taken down into
the kitchen and given something to something to eat ".

alse there's "be + past participle".

" the cat would be eaten ".
" we would be honored to be your guests : the king said ".

Can I say I will be honored or should I say I would be honored ? which one of these is more correct ? and why ?


what is the name of this rule ?
and could you explain it to me clearly please ?
because I want to learn how to use it and when to use it

[nesyan]

I'm still waiting for your help teachers

[English Freak]

Dear nesyan,

Please be patient! When you post a thread, it might be answered in 3 or 4 hours due to time difference in different countries.
About your question, I should say those structures are passive where the subjects are unknown. When the king orders the cat to be taken down into
the kitchen ..., he doesn't mention who should do it so we don't know the person (subject) who is going to do it so we have to use a passive structure. Simply speaking, for all passive forms with modal verbs we can have the following structure:

Subject + modal verb (can, could, might, should, would, etc.) + be + p.p. (as in the underlined part above)

And in this example "We would be honored to be your guests : the king said.", "would" is correct because the king's speech took place in the past. But " I will be honored ..." is also correct in an appropriate situation.
I hope it's useful and easy to understand.

[nesyan]

I really do appreciate your post but I partly understood it
could you or anybody else reanswer me again ?

[5jj]

I really do appreciate your post but I partly understood it
could you or anybody else reanswer me again ?

As English Freak said, these are passive structures.

To be + past participle

to be taken
I want the soldiers to take the prisoner to...
I want the prisoner to be taken (by the soldiers) to...

to be told
I want you to tell this story to your grandchildren.
I want this story to be told (by you) to your grandchildren.

Also there's "be + past participle".

" the cat would be eaten ".
The rats would eat the cat if it died
The cat would be eaten by the rats if it died.