Wednesday, September 16, 2015

How do I change the voice of the following two sentences? "I just had one doubt. So, please help me as fast as you can."The sentences are "I just...

When a sentence is written in passive
voice,
the Object of the Verb of the active substitution of the sentence
is moved to the Subject position in order to emphasize the Object, as in "Computers will
be operated by you."


This sentence empahsizes the Object
computers of the active sentence "You can operate computers" in
order to change the dynamic or the relationship between the actor/agent ("you") and the
recipient of the action ("computer").


The construction
model for a passive sentence is Subject, auxiliary be
+ Past Participle, Object
as in "Computers (S) will be
(auxiliary be, simple
future tense) operated (PP) by you (O)."


To substitute a
passive voice construction for the above active sentence "I just had one doubt," you
will follow the above model with the result: "Just one doubt is what/all I had," with
"Just one doubt (S) is (auxiliary verb
be, present tense) what/all I had
(O)."


To substitute a passive voice construction for the
active sentence, having an omitted Subject
you, "So, [you] please help me as fast
as you can," takes a little more work.


Firstly, recognize
that "as fast as you can" is an Adverbial of Manner and not part of the active/passive
model, rendering the central active sentence as "[You] help me," with "You (S) help (V)
me (O) + as fast as you can (Adverbial of Manner)."


The
substituted passive construction will be "So, I will be helped by you as fast as you
can, please," with "I (S) will be (auxiliary
be, simple future tense) helped (PP)
by you (O) as fast as you can (Adverbial of Manner), please." You might notice that this
syntax is a little awkward as it loses its imperative function and becomes more of a
pleading prediction, which is why it is said that imperatives cannot be substituted with
passive voice construction in English.


The tense of a
passive sentence can vary widely using is, was, will, been, will
be, am, to be, will have been, are, were, were being,
among
others. Though different, since be is
an irregular verb, they are all the same in that the passive
verb
is auxiliary verb
be
. For a more complete view of the tense variations
of passive verb be, see title="Passive Voice: Construction of the Passive Voice. EnglishClub.com"
href="http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-voice_passive.htm">EnglishClub.com.

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