Hi guys! Welcome to our virtual classroom! Today we are going to revise the content of units 9 and 10 which we are about to finish.
Read these two charts from page 119 carefully:
How to make the Passive in English:
We make the passive by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need and then add past participle. For regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding 'ed' to the infinitive. So play becomes played. For irregular verbs, check the third column of irregular verbs in your books. Remember there is a "mirror effect" in the structure:
"I grow pear trees"
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
"Pear trees are grown by me"
SUBJECT PATIENT+ PASSIVE VERB + COMPLEMENT AGENT
"by agent" is OPTIONAL IN SOME SITUATIONS and can be omitted.
When?
1. I do not know the agent : JFK was assassinated
2. The agent is evident: The thief was finally arrested
3. I do not want it to be known: The jar was broken
There are things that cannot be considered agents. Foe example:
"The turkey was stuffed with mince meat and breadcrumbs"
AND NOT "by mince meat and breadcrumbs"
When the sentence has more than one object like in:
"I sent a mail to my friends"
SUBJECT +VERB +DIRECT OBJECT +INDIRECT OBJECT
We have two options:
"A mail was sent to my friends by me" (the direct object is the focus)
OR
"My friends were sent a mail by me" (the indirect object is the focus)
Everything depends on what I want to emphasize.
What did you send? A mail was sent to my friends
Who were sent a mail? My friends were sent the mail
Remember past perfect is "the past of the past". Perfect means finished. This implies that past perfect has finished before past simple. Do you get it?
"I had just finished my homework when my dad arrived home"
past___________1. had finished____________2. arrived_____________present
The same is I change the order in the sentence:
"By the time my dad arrived, I had already finished my homework"
Which action is closer to the present? Think…Exactly, "arrived". Don't be misled by the order of the sentence.
In fact, past perfect is the same as present perfect but my point of reference is in the past.
Now do pages 119 and 120. If you have any questions, please, send me a mail. See you! ;)
Comments