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    Impersonal Passive

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    shajith rr
    This document discusses personal and impersonal passive voice constructions in English. It provides examples of personal passive sentences where the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. It then explains that impersonal passive is used with intransitive verbs that do not take an object. There are two types of impersonal passive constructions: ones using "it is said that" and ones using the subject followed by "to be" plus a past participle and an infinitive verb. The document provides examples of these and discusses how to change the tense of the clause for the infinitive construction. It also lists some common verbs used in impersonal passive forms and includes practice exercises.

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    Impersonal Passive

    Uploaded by

    shajith rr
    107 views14 pages
    This document discusses personal and impersonal passive voice constructions in English. It provides examples of personal passive sentences where the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. It then explains that impersonal passive is used with intransitive verbs that do not take an object. There are two types of impersonal passive constructions: ones using "it is said that" and ones using the subject followed by "to be" plus a past participle and an infinitive verb. The document provides examples of these and discusses how to change the tense of the clause for the infinitive construction. It also lists some common verbs used in impersonal passive forms and includes practice exercises.

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    This document discusses personal and impersonal passive voice constructions in English. It provides examples of personal passive sentences where the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. It then explains that impersonal passive is used with intransitive verbs that do not take an object. There are two types of impersonal passive constructions: ones using "it is said that" and ones using the subject followed by "to be" plus a past participle and an infinitive verb. The document provides examples of these and discusses how to change the tense of the clause for the infinitive construction. It also lists some common verbs used in impersonal passive forms and includes practice exercises.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    107 views14 pages

    Impersonal Passive

    Uploaded by

    shajith rr
    This document discusses personal and impersonal passive voice constructions in English. It provides examples of personal passive sentences where the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. It then explains that impersonal passive is used with intransitive verbs that do not take an object. There are two types of impersonal passive constructions: ones using "it is said that" and ones using the subject followed by "to be" plus a past participle and an infinitive verb. The document provides examples of these and discusses how to change the tense of the clause for the infinitive construction. It also lists some common verbs used in impersonal passive forms and includes practice exercises.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    Impersonal Passive

    DR. G. LOGANAYAKI ,
    DE PT. OF ENGLISH,
    SRC, S AS TRA
    Personal Passive
    Personal Passive simply means that the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive
    sentence.
    So every verb that needs an object (transitive verb) can form a personal passive.
    Example:
    •Active: They build houses.
    •Passive: Houses are built.
    •Active: The professor gave the students the books.
    •Passive: The students were given the books.
    We very often leave out the by-agent in the passive sentence (here: by the professor).
    Impersonal Passive
    Verbs without an object (intransitive verb) normally cannot form a personal passive sentence (as there is
    no object that can become the subject of the passive sentence)
    If you want to use an intransitive verb in passive voice, you need an impersonal construction – therefore
    this passive is called Impersonal Passive.
    Two types
    1. It is said that….
    [It + passive verb (be + past participle) + that clause]
    2. To infinitive impersonal passives
    The subject + passive verb (be+past participle) + to infinitive
    1. It is said that….
    [It + passive verb (be + past participle) + that clause]
    Example
    •he says => it is said

    •There is a report that the defense minister is to resign


    •It is reported that the defense minister is to resign.

    • They say that women live longer than men.


    •It is said that women live longer than men.
    2. To infinitive impersonal passives
    The subject + passive verb (be + past participle) + to infinitive
    Example
    •They say that women live longer than men.
    •Women are said to live longer than men.

    •There is a claim that the terrorist is living abroad.


    •The terrorist is claimed to be living abroad.
    Tense
    If the tense of the clause is simple past, we change it to present perfect in to infinitive clause:
    •People believe the company stole over a million pounds
    •The company is believed to have stolen over a million pounds
    If the tense of the clause is past continuous, we change it to present perfect continuous in to infinitive
    clause:
    •They believed they were living in the woods.
    •They were believed to have been living in the woods.
    Examples
    Examples
    Common verbs used in
    impersonal passive forms:
    agree / allege / announce / assume / believe /
    calculate / claim / consider / declare / discover /
    estimate / expect / find / known / mention /
    propose / recommend / rumour / show / suppose /
    suggest / understand
    Practice Exercises
    1. People believe the company stole over a million pounds
    It ________________________________________________________
    The company __________________________________________________

    2. We expect the train strike will begin tomorrow


    It ___________________________________________________
    The Train Strike__________________________________________
    Answers
    1.People believe the company stole over a million pounds
    It is believed that the company stole over a million pounds
    The company is believed to have stolen over a million pounds

    2.We expect the train strike will begin tomorrow


    It is expected that the train strike will begin tomorrow
    The Train Strike is expected to begin tomorrow
    Quiz
    Impersonal passive-English (tolearnenglish.com)
    References
    Passive Grammar Basics (academic-englishuk.com)
    Personal Passive - Impersonal Passive - It is said (englisch-hilfen.de)
    Bilbao School » THE IMPERSONAL PASSIVE & THE CAUSATIVE
    impersonal_passive_tle.pdf (halwar.sn)

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