[Grammar] Passive and Active sentences.

[Ash Mehta]

Have I got these round the right way?

Present Simple Passive
Beyonce's music is produced by Jay-Z.

Present Simple Active
Jay-Z is the producer of Beyonce's music.

Past Simple Passive
Beyonce's music was produced by Jay-Z.

Past Simple Active
Jay-Z produced the music for Beyonce.

 

[BobK]

1, 3 and 4 are fine. Have another look at 2. (Hint - What's the verb?)

b

 

[Ash Mehta]

2) Jay-Z produces music for Beyonce. (to produce - to be the producer)

 

[Ash Mehta]

Thank you. One more question - If someone asked you what is the point of passive and active sentences, what would you tell them?

1) Active - Places emphasis on the 'subject/agent' as the 'doer' of the verb
2) Passive - Places emphasis on the subject, but makes the object/agent the 'doer'

Why would student need to do this? Would it be to make their creative writing more interesting to read?

 

[5jj]

Here are some reasons:

The agent may be unimportant: Over 41,000 Skoda cars were sold/bought in the UK last year.
The agent may be unknown: George's father was killed in Laos.
The agent may wish to appear not to be responsible for the action: The files were lost in the move (The speaker lost them!)
An impersonal tone may be desired: Five thousand students were interviewed about their eating habits.

More than one reason may apply in any situation, and there are certainly other reasons.

 

[BobK]

Another popular reason for using the passive is when people specifically want to hide the culprit. This usage is very popular among politicians: ;-)

Interviewer: Wouldn't you say you made a mistake?
Politician: Mistakes were made, and lessons have been learnt.

b