180 GRAMMAR REVISITED Subject form of to be past participle extra information My friend was bitten by a dog. Subject modal verb be/have been past participle extra information This person should/must/could … be fired immediately. This person should/must/could … have been fired a long time ago. Tense Example Present simple In the USA, temperature is measured in Fahrenheit. Present continuous I am staying in a hotel right now because my house is being renovated. Past simple Last week, my piano lesson was cancelled because my teacher was ill. Past continuous While our car was being repaired, we went for a little walk. Present perfect simple Your name has been added to the list, and you are now officially a member of this organisation. Future with will The new hospital will be opened by the King in the summer. Past perfect simple The director was very proud because she had been awarded a prize for her film. The passive When you use a modal verb in a passive sentence, the structure is as follows: You may also have come across passive structures which use a form of to get instead of a form of to be. This is particularly common in spoken English. However, this type of passive structure is rather informal and should be avoided in formal writing such as essays and reports. Additionally, passives with get often indicate that something is unplanned or unexpected: My sister cheated on the test and got caught by her teacher. Here are some examples: You typically use passive structures when you want to focus on actions and their effects, rather than on who is doing them. You may not know who does/did something, or you may simply not be interested in saying who is/was involved: The famous Stonehenge stone circle was built thousands of years ago. My friend’s car was stolen while he was on holiday. You often find passives in scientific texts and similar impersonal text types. If you want to mention the person who is responsible for the action in a passive sentence, you add this information using by, but this is rarely necessary. The first monument at Stonehenge was built 5,000 years ago by a neolithic civilisation. You can make passive sentences in different tenses. The passive voice is formed with to be in the correct tense followed by the past participle of the verb: Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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