Point 30 in PASSIVES is defined as: have + object + -ed to talk about something where the speaker is in a pro-active or a passive role. We can follow the pattern in the examples in the EGP as: _vh _a _n _vvn When we look in iWeb corpus for this pattern, we realise most […]
Category: passives
passive infinitive + range
This grammar entry is very broad. Point 29 in the category of PASSIVES and INFINITIVE is defined as: affirmative and negative forms after an increasing range of main verbs, modal verbs, adjectives and nouns, in impersonal constructions. All the range entries in the English Grammar Profile are left to interpretation and not so clear. For […]
past simple negative passive
Point 28 in the category of PASSIVES is past simple negative. In iWeb corpus we find the following: WERE NOT ALLOWED JAMnews Georgian opposition party hosted a rally for football fans who were not allowed to enter the stadium. *This example may be B1 based on ‘allowed to’. 2 WAS NOT ALLOWED 8189 3 […]
present perfect simple passive affirmative
1 HAS BEEN USED 89516 2 HAVE BEEN MADE 84822 3 HAS BEEN MADE 77399 4 HAVE BEEN USED 64855 5 HAS BEEN SHOWN 59557 HAS BEEN DESIGNED The RiotACT Known as ‘The Parks’, the project has been designed by Stewart Architecture and split into two development applications of 68 apartments. 7 HAS BEEN […]
GET + OBJECT + TO INFINITIVE
Point 24 in the category of PASSIVES is defined as ‘get’ + object + ‘to’-infinitive to talk about causing someone to do something. This is clearly a much rarer structure to find based on the low counts for these clusters seen in corpora. On the left we have matches for the criteria on iWeb through […]
past perfect passive
Point 23 in the category of PASSIVES is PAST PERFECT SIMPLE AFFIRMATIVE. 1 HAD BEEN MADE 19943 2 HAD BEEN GIVEN 14661 3 HAD BEEN TAKEN 13070 4 HAD BEEN USED 11665 5 HAD BEEN KILLED 10350 6 HAD BEEN TOLD 9141 7 HAD BEEN FOUND 8666 8 HAD BEEN SENT 8034 9 HAD BEEN […]
present continuous passive + range of verbs
Point 21 in the category of PASSIVES is defined as PRESENT CONTINUOUS AFFIRMATIVE with an increasing range of verbs A search in iWeb corpus: 1 IS BEING USED 45742 2 ARE BEING USED 25289 3 IS BEING HELD 21147 4 IS BEING MADE 14558 5 ARE BEING MADE 14380 IS BEING DEVELOPED The Aviationist […]
present perfect simple negative passive
Point 20 in the category of PASSIVES is defined as: PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE, NEGATIVE often in the context of reporting reported speech A search on iWeb for _vh _xx been _vvn: 1 HAS NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED 3143 2 HAS NOT BEEN SEEN 3058 3 HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED 2794 4 HAS NOT BEEN USED […]
BE + -WN passive suffix
After ‘BE’, a word ending with ‘wn’ is usually past participle. The exceptions are ‘down’, ‘brown’, ‘well-known’ and ‘unknown’. 1 IS (VBZ) KNOWN (VVN) 377649 2 ARE (VBR) KNOWN (VVN) 143646 3 IS (VBZ) SHOWN (VVN) 130843 4 BEEN (VBN) SHOWN (VVN) 110513 5 BE (VBI) SHOWN (VVN) 83516 6 BEEN (VBN) KNOWN (VVN) 80984 […]
BE + -ought passive suffix
There are only a few in a hundred times that ought does not mark a past particple after a form of the ‘BE’ verb. 1 BE (VBI) BROUGHT (VVN) 83149 2 WAS (VBDZ) BROUGHT (VVN) 73072 3 IS (VBZ) THOUGHT (VVN) 64778 4 BE (VBI) TAUGHT (VVN) 43927 5 IS (VBZ) BROUGHT (VVN) 42006 6 […]