Using passive voice
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Overview | page 1 of 6 |
Introduction
The following extract contains three verbs in passive voice
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A 13-year-old boy who was alleged to have driven away a Kowloon double-decker bus in Mei Foo Sun Tsuen last night was detained for investigations.
He was arrested by the bus driver with the help of a mini-bus driver after the bus collided with a stationary mini-bus. The incident occurred at about 8:30 pm when the bus driver parked. (SCMP 6/10/92)
Such clauses with passive voice verbs can be referred to simply as passive clauses. Sometimes they are also referred to as passive sentences, although as the examples given above show, it is clauses that are either passive or active, not sentences. Note that the first sentence contains two passive clauses, while the second sentence contains one passive clause and one active clause.
This file provides an overview of forms and uses of passive clauses.
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Introduction
Relating passive clauses to active clauses
