[Grammar] present progressive

[MikeNewYork]

Without the word "was" the sentence makes no sense.

Active voice: Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin, murdered John Kennedy.
Passive voice: John Kennedy was murdered by the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

[Matthew Wai]

why to add the word "was" with ed, why not to leave the word murdered alone?

Because the verb 'to be' is needed to form the passive voice.

Not a teacher.

 

[MikeNewYork]

The noun "affect" doesn't work either. The noun "effect" is close.

 

[captain1]

Without the word "was" the sentence makes no sense.

Active voice: Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin, murdered John Kennedy.
Passive voice: John Kennedy was murdered by the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Why can not I use the active voice? as you told me "the sentence makes no sense". Someone did an action(Subject=Oswald) to Kennedy(the object).

What is the problem with this grammar?

Thank you very much.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Why can not I use the active voice?

Who says you cannot use the active voice?

Not a teacher.

 

[captain1]

Who says you cannot use the active voice?

Not a teacher.

Thank you, now I understand.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Captain:



Mona: What happened to President Kennedy?
Teacher: He was murdered in 1963.
James: Who murdered him?
Teacher: Lee Harvey Oswald did.


NOTES: 1. The teacher's full answer to Mona is: "He was murdered in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald." Mona, however, wanted to know what had happened to him. So the teacher did not feel that it was necessary to name the assassin.

2. The teacher's full answer to James is: "Lee Harvey Oswald murdered him." But it sounds more natural to use "did" as a substitute for "murdered him."

Both the active and passive voices are correct -- depending on what you wish to say.

Sometimes we use the passive to be kind. (To be LESS direct)

If you know that X (a member of your family) stole your watch yesterday, it would not be very kind to say: "X stole my watch yesterday."

It would be kinder to say: "My watch was stolen yesterday." You do NOT add the words "by X," for you do not want to embarrass X or to

make X angry with you.



James

 

[captain1]

Thank you very much, very useful!

 

[captain1]

Hello again, I have another question:
Why the phrase "consul general" is not general consul? because I know that we need to write the adjective before the noun.
Consul is a noun
General is an adjective.

The question is very important in order to understand how to write correctly.
Thanks

 

[MikeNewYork]

There are a number of position expressions that have the adjective after the noun, One is Attorney General.

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello again, I have another question:
Why the phrase "consul general" is not general consul? because I know that we need to write the adjective before the noun.
Consul is a noun
General is an adjective.

The question is very important in order to understand how to write correctly.
Thanks

Hello, captain1.

May I suggest that you start a new thread for the question above?
(It has nothing to do with the title of this thread - 'present progressive'.)

Thank you.

 

[captain1]

Done, I wrote a new post. MikeNewYork, please give me an answer in the new post if you want/can.
So just in spesific cases we use this expressions? usually we do not need to put the adjective after the noun?