passive voice

[cy982002]

can you pls advise the passive voice for the following sentences

1. I enjoyed taking the children to zoo.

2. His colleagues started to respect him.

3. The team captain hoped to select Kevin.

4. the difference between

It was expected that the damage would be extensive.

and

the damage was expected to be extensive

5. the difference between

It is thought that there are too many obstacles to peace.

and

There are thought to be too many obsacles to peace.

Thank you very much for your help.

Cy982002

[5jj]

can you pls advise the passive voice for the following sentences

1. I enjoyed taking the children to zoo.

2. His colleagues started to respect him.

3. The team captain hoped to select Kevin.

My advice would be to leave them as they are. if you can manage passive constructions there, they will be rather unnatural -

He started to be respected by his colleagues. ?

If I wanted to move the emphasis to he, I would be more likely to say:

He started to gain the respect of his colleagues.

[sudath]

Thanks. It will be a very interesting discussion. I teach my students to use passive if and only if it is absolutely necessary. That means , if they want to hide the doer. In all other situations use active. when it comes to 'academic writing and very formal writing this 'rule' might have to to be changed a bit, as I have done in the first part of this very sentence.

[Barb_D]

It seems pointless to hid the doer when you're talking about enjoyment or hope. What's the point of saying that something was enjoyed or hoped for, if you won't say who was enjoying it or who was hoping?

[Raymott]

Thanks. It will be a very interesting discussion. I teach my students to use passive if and only if it is absolutely necessary. That means , if they want to hide the doer. In all other situations use active. when it comes to 'academic writing and very formal writing this 'rule' might have to to be changed a bit, as I have done in the first part of this very sentence.

Yes, and there are also other reasons for using the passive, such as where the emphasis lies.
"The memorial was erected by friends of the victim" has a different perspective from "Friends of the victim erected the memorial."
But I agree that this is not necessary for beginners.

[philo2009]

can you pls advise the passive voice for the following sentences

1. I enjoyed taking the children to zoo.

Not passivizable.

2. His colleagues started to respect him.

Technically not passivizable. You could say

He started to be respected by his colleagues.

However, although this sentence contains a passive infinitive, its overall structure (i.e. judged according to the main clause verb phrase) is still that of an active sentence.

3. The team captain hoped to select Kevin.

Not passivizable.

4. the difference between

It was expected that the damage would be extensive.

and

the damage was expected to be extensive

None.

5. the difference between

It is thought that there are too many obstacles to peace.

and

There are thought to be too many obstacles to peace.

None.