Grammar: Passive voice on the web-site for teachers and learners of English as a secondary language from a German point of view
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Grammar: Passive voice


 
Form Function Curriculum Difficulties Situations
present tense:

I        am             called

He                    introduced
She    is           taken
It                       
born

We
You     are
They
  • To stress the thing done more
    than the doer of it.
  • The doer is unknown, of no  interest or  of no importance
  • The by-agent is often/generally  omitted
unless there is a further information to complete the sentence (stress on the thing)
unless the by-agent is contrasted to another by-agent which is therefore especially stressed

            

(The burglar was caught by the caretaker 
(and not by the police.) 
 
 
 
 

 

 Klasse 7 / 8:

is/are done
was/were done
can/must/ 
     should be done

Klasse 9 / 10

Revision

Remedial work
based on

tenses of to be

past participles

irregular verbs

transitive verbs

22 verbs with 2 
     objects

personal 
     passive

stress on 
     words in 
     front-position
     and end-position

contrasting 
     active and 
     passive voice

 intralingual
interferences:
competing structures:

People/they/
someone called me yesterday.

I had my hair cut.

It was Shakespeare who wrote Henry VIII.

interlingual:
He was injured - Er war /wurde verletzt.

Verben im Passiv -
persönl. Passiv

Verwechslung mit Adjektiven: He was interested in...

Verwechslung future active voice -
present passive voice:

I will catch you -
I am caught (by you)
werden als Hilfsverb für die Zukunft und als Hilfsverb für das Passiv

 General statements

News: 
The car was damaged, 4 people were killed.

Headlines:

6M pounds robbed

Brochures and reports:

This church was built in.....

Processes:

How to make mocassins

Experiments:

Columbus' egg

works of literature:

Romeo and Juliet was written by W.S.

Past tense

I
He
She    was     + verb+ed
It                     or 3rd form
                       
We
You   were
They

  
present perfect

I
You
We       have     + verb+ed
They              or 3rd form
been                
He                   
She     has
It

  
future tense

It must
   can                 done
   shall    be     + verb+ed
   will              or 3rd form

They will be prosecuted

  
Expressions

Made in England
Made of silver
Used for cleaning

 Completing headlines with a past participle  
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