🪟 The window was broken
Year 6 puts the smash first or the smasher. Grade 8 adds five moods, then tells you not to change coats mid-sentence.
What you’ll learn
- The window in the greenhouseTell active from passive, form the passive with be plus a past participle, and see how Year 6's greenhouse pair moves the spotlight.I broke the window puts the breaker first. The window was broken puts the glass first. Same smash. Two chairs. Not every was is passive.
- Who gets the spotlightChoose the passive to emphasise an object or hide an unknown actor, and flip it back to active when the doer matters.Mistakes were made hides the hands. A hundred votes are required puts the number first. Samples were prepared is honest when you do not know who. The chicken belongs in the subject slot.
- Five moods, one verbForm and name the five Grade 8 moods: indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive.Voice is who does it. Mood is how you treat it. He was here. Be here. Did he go? He would go. If he were here. The clock can stay still.
- Don't change coats mid-sentenceCatch and fix inappropriate shifts in voice and mood, then pick a coat on purpose for effect.The baker mixed the dough, and then the bread was put is a voice shift. Wash the dishes and you should dry them is a mood shift. One coat, or a new sentence. Tonight, steal a line and name its coat.
Questions this course answers
Year 6 prints I broke the window in the greenhouse versus The window in the greenhouse was broken (by me). What job does Appendix 2 give the passive?
Appendix 2's Year 6 sentence line is use of the passive to affect the presentation of information in a sentence. The smash stays. The spotlight moves from the breaker to the window.
UNC's sure-fire formula for spotting the passive.
UNC: form of to be + past participle = passive voice. The window was broken. The hawk was killed. Was falling does not count, because falling is not a past participle of an action done to the subject.
LibreTexts gives She was falling as a trap. Why is that sentence not passive?
LibreTexts: in She was falling, was simply indicates that the sentence takes place in the past. She is still the one falling. He is short is the other trap — is is a linking verb, no action to receive.
Match each Grade 8 mood to the job Purdue or Brehe gives it.
Purdue's three: indicative, imperative, subjunctive. Brehe and Grade 8 add interrogative. The fifth, conditional, is the would-or-might coat. The clock can stay still while the coat changes.
How many verb moods does Grade 8 L.8.1.c name?
L.8.1.c names five: indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive. Purdue's older handout names three of them. Grade 8 wants the full five.
UNC's fish was caught by the seagull. Put these flip-steps in order.
UNC: find to be + past participle, find the actor, put the actor in front, drop the extra be and the by-phrase. The seagull caught the fish is the active twin.
Grounded in trusted sources
- Department for Education, English Appendix 2: Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (Year 6 Sentence: Use of the passive to affect the presentation of information in a sentence [for example, I broke the window in the greenhouse versus The window in the greenhouse was broken (by me)]. Year 6 also: the use of subjunctive forms such as If I were or Were they to come in some very formal writing and speech. Terminology for pupils: subject, object, active, passive), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335190/English_Appendix_2_-_Vocabulary_grammar_and_punctuation.pdf
- Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study (Years 5 and 6: using the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause; using modal verbs or adverbs to indicate degrees of possibility; using passive verbs to affect the presentation of information in a sentence. Key stage 3: paying attention to accurate grammar, punctuation and spelling; drawing on new vocabulary and grammatical constructions and using these consciously in writing and speech to achieve particular effects; extending and applying the knowledge and skills specified in Appendix 2), https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
- Common Core State Standards Initiative, English Language Arts Standards, Language, Grade 8: L.8.1.b Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice; L.8.1.c Form and use verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive mood; L.8.1.d Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood; L.8.3.a Use verbs in the active and passive voice and in the conditional and subjunctive mood to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action; expressing uncertainty or describing a state contrary to fact), https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/8/
- Purdue University Online Writing Lab, Verbs: Voice and Mood (active: Tim killed the chicken hawk; passive: The chicken hawk was killed by Tim; indicative: He was here / I am hungry / She will bring her books; imperative, understood you: Be here at seven / Cook me an omelette / Bring your books; subjunctive contrary to fact and were not was: If he were here; review: I need some help / Help me! / If I were smart, I'd call for help), https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/verbs_voice_and_mood.html
- Purdue University Online Writing Lab, Active Versus Passive Voice (active preferred for most non-scientific writing; even in scientific writing too much passive can cloud meaning; The entrance exam was failed by over one-third of the applicants versus Over one-third of the applicants failed the entrance exam; Your bicycle has been damaged versus I have damaged your bicycle; active is more concise), https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/active_versus_passive_voice.html
- LibreTexts, Lumen, Introduction to College Composition, 25.2 Active and Passive Voice (A does B / B is done by A; Carmen sings the song / The song is sung by Carmen; the passive hides who does the action; She was falling and He is short are not passive; The samples were prepared in a clean room; my luggage had been stolen; the papers will be graded — graded by whom?; convert Enzo completed the process from The process was completed by Enzo), https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Composition/Introductory_Composition/Introduction_to_College_Composition_(Lumen)/04%3A_Grammar/25%3A_Voice/25.2%3A_Active_and_Passive_Voice
- The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Passive Voice (myths: not a grammatical error, not every to be, not always wrong; formula: form of to be + past participle; Why was the road crossed by the chicken?; The fish was caught by the seagull; Mistakes were made and Orwell's swindles and perversions; three good uses: emphasise an object — One hundred votes are required; unknown actor — Over 120 different contaminants have been dumped; readers do not need the actor — Baby Sophia was delivered; lab reports: the human genome was sequenced versus we sequenced the human genome), https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/passive-voice/
- Steven Brehe, Brehe's Grammar Anatomy, 1.21 Many Things (But no Cabbages or Kings), University of North Georgia Press / LibreTexts (indicative in declarative sentences: Joshua went away; interrogative often marked by the do auxiliary: Did Joshua go?; imperative marked by a missing subject: Go away!; conditional mood built from the modal auxiliaries can/could, shall/should, will/would, may, must, might; subjunctive for hypotheticals, wishes, and If I were you, I would…; exercise 20e: list the five moods of verbs), https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Composition/Grammar/Grammar_Anatomy_(Brehe)/01%3A_Chapters/1.21%3A_Many_Things_(But_no_Cabbages_or_Kings)
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