PASSIVE TRANSFORMATION OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

PASSIVE TRANSFORMATION OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES


Search Query:

16 Aug 21:12:53 www.google.com.pk passive of conditional 3



The grammatical rule underlying any passive transformation is based on the introduction of the auxiliary “be “ in all its tense forms , being present, past or future in addition to position shift between the subject and the object.

This rule is applicable to any sentence where the verb is transitive.

Let’s look at some examples.

The US government exerts pressure on file hosting servers.

In this sentence,

“The US government” is the subject,

“Exerts” is the main verb in the simple present tense,

“Pressure” is the object of the verb,

“On” is a preposition,

And “file hosting servers” is the object of the preposition “on”.

In any passive transformation we obviously ask the question “what” or “who” preceded by the verb.

In our example “exerts what?”

The answer is “pressure”.

So the word “pressure” will become the new subject of the passive transformation.

We introduce the correct form of the verb “be” in the simple present tense since the original verb “exerts” is in the simple present tense and we change our main verb into a past participle, taking into consideration whether it is regular or irregular and finally we introduce the “by” phrase and the subject of the active sentence, which is called the agent.

The sentence then becomes:

Pressure is exerted on file hosting servers by the US government.

That’s it.

Let’s go to the question asked over and over by visitors to this blog: the passive of conditional sentences.

Any conditional sentence can be transformed into the passive whatever type it is, type 1, 2 or 3 on condition the verb is transitive, which simply means that the verb has an object and obviously it answers the “what” or “who” question.

Conditional sentences are made up of two clauses, a “subordinate clause” which is the “if clause” and a “main clause”- a cause and an effect.

Let’s look at an example.

When there’s a cause-effect relationship between two sentences, a conditional sentence is always possible.

If the US government exerts too much pressure on file hosting servers, file sharing will soon die. ( “can” and “may” can be both used instead of “will”.)

Let’s ask the “what” question.

“Exert” what?

The answer is “too much pressure”.

So the passive transformation of our conditional sentence will be:

If too much pressure is exerted on file hosting servers (by the US government), file sharing will soon die.

Our example is of type 1.

We can follow the same steps in conditional type 2 , 3 or mixed conditionals.

The search quest of a visitor from Pakistan was about the passive of conditional type 3.

The passive transformation of conditional type 3 is as simple as that of conditional type 1 if we master our grammatical tools.

Let’s look at an example in conditional type 3 now.

Someone: he stole the money. They took him to jail.

There’s certainly a cause-effect relationship between these two sentences.

Since the time context in this situation is in the past, so, evidently, conditional type 3 is needed here.

And since the context, the reality of the situation is positive , we are going to imagine something which is totally the opposite, negative; hence conditional type 3 is called unreal or imaginary past.

If he hadn’t stolen the money, they wouldn’t have taken him to jail.

But the reality is: they took him to prison because he stole the money.

Let’s ask the “what” question.

He “had stolen” “what”?

The answer is “the money”.

So “the money” will become the new subject of conditional sentence in the passive.

The past participle transformation of the verb is not necessary since in conditional type 3 we need the past perfect.

And we need to introduce the verb “be” which is the key in any passive transformation.

The main verb in the active conditional sentence is in the past perfect, so “be” in the past perfect is “had been” and in our case it is “hadn’t been”.

Our sentence will become:

If the money hadn’t been stolen by him, they wouldn’t have taken him to jail.

Sometimes both clauses of the conditional sentences can be transformed into the passive and our example is no exception.

If the money hadn’t been stolen by him, he wouldn’t have been taken to jail.
That’s it.

I hope I’ve been as much clear as possible in my explanation.

And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!