English B2 · Advanced passive
英語B2 トピック 5 4:00 英語ナレーション・英語＋中文字幕 burning-in
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Transcript
You know the B1 passive: the homework was eaten by the cat. B2 adds three grown-up moves. The get-passive: he got fired. The impersonal passive: it is said that money can't buy happiness. The double-object passive: I was given a present. The memory hook: B1 built the passive machine; B2 teaches it to dance.
The get-passive is informal, alive and slightly dramatic: he got fired, she got promoted, my phone got stolen — again; that phone needs a bodyguard. Get suggests the subject was affected, that something happened to them, often suddenly. In an exam essay, was fired is the safer suit; in conversation, got fired is how people actually talk.
Pause and choose. He was fired last week: formal writing takes the be-passive. Got fired is how people actually talk, elsewhere. Gotten is American and still informal, and got fire lost its participle on the way to the meeting.
English reports claims without naming who holds them. It is believed that the test was hard. Or the tighter version: the test is believed to have been hard. The classic verbs are say, believe, think, know, report, expect and suppose. Two doors, same rumour: it is said that he is a genius; he is said to be a genius. The power of the structure is that nobody gets named.
Pause and choose. He is believed to have left early. The leaving came first and the believing is now, so the infinitive wears the perfect costume: to have left. To leave would place the leaving now or later, which would surprise everyone at the empty meeting.
Verbs like give, send, show, teach and tell carry two objects, and both can become the passive subject. They gave me a medal. The person-passive is the natural choice: I was given a medal. The thing-passive is rarer and formal: a medal was given to me. Legal, but stiff. In speech, the person steps forward: I was told the news.
Pause and choose. I was told the news: the person-passive, natural and warm. The news was told to me is legal but stiff, me was told is a pronoun in the wrong case, and I was told by the news reverses the journalism entirely.
The oldest guard still stands: every passive needs its be. It said that is impossible; it is said that holds. He believed to have left is impossible; he is believed to have left holds. And the impersonal passive is not youren shuo translated word for word; it is said by people that is heavy, because the whole power of the structure is that nobody gets named. The rule from B1 has not taken a day off.
Report today's classroom rumours responsibly. It is said that the maths test was easy; it is believed that nobody checked. She is reported to have finished her homework; witnesses are sceptical. I was given a medal for attendance; I got promoted to person who collects the medals. And the cat is known to have eaten the homework. The cat has not commented.
Pause for four checks. He got fired: informal, sudden, unfortunate. It is believed that the test was hard: nobody gets named. He is believed to have left early: the infinitive matches the earlier event. And I was given a medal: the person takes the spotlight. Next topic: reported questions and commands, where the retelling learns to give orders.