Wednesday 14 November 2007

Qualified

I've been told that qualified or generalized writing in the passive voice may not hold interest.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very clever :)

But is that sentence in the passive voice? (I can't see how it is...)

Gordon Cheng said...

Naturally the question one must sometimes ask regarding the passive voice, and most likely with regard to the sentence being questioned in the statement that has been made, is as to the identity of the person performing the action.

So in this case, who is doing the telling?

Comprende? ;-)

Anonymous said...

"Naturally the question one must sometimes ask regarding the passive voice, and most likely with regard to the sentence being questioned in the statement that has been made, is as to the identity of the person performing the action. "
Wow. If I ever need someone to help me obscure meaning, I'll ask you.

So even though it isn't using a construction of 'to be' and participle, it is passive voice because you are telling about it instead of it telling about it?
Haha I'll say, "non, je ne comprende pas vraiment! J'ai mal à la Tête!"

What would it be in the active voice?

Gordon Cheng said...

"I have been told" is a passive construction, using a past tense of the verb 'to be'.

The easy test for it is that although I have been told, we don't know who it is that has told me. Therefore, passive voice is being used.

What's more, "may not hold interest" is also a passive construction. For whom may it not hold interest, one may ask?

See?

All other questions, see me in my office at lunchtime.

Anonymous said...

Ah! C'est simple! J'etait regarder le premiere part du phrase.

I was looking at this bit "may not hold interest."

Thanks :)