Rabu, 26 Juni 2013

PASSIVE VOICE

The passive voice is a grammatical construction (specifically, a "voice"). The noun or noun phrase that would be the object of an active sentence (such as Our troops defeated the enemy) appears as the subject of a sentence with passive voice (e.g. The enemy was defeated by our troops).
The subject of a sentence or clause featuring the passive voice denotes the recipient of the action (the patient) rather than the performer (the agent). The passive voice in English is formed periphrastically: the usual form uses the auxiliary verb be (or get) together with the past participle of the main verb.
For example, Caesar was stabbed by Brutus uses the passive voice. The subject denotes the person (Caesar) affected by the action of the verb. The agent is expressed here with the phrase by Brutus, but this can be omitted. The equivalent sentence in active voice is Brutus stabbed Caesar, in which the subject denotes the doer, or agent, Brutus. A sentence featuring the passive voice is sometimes called a passive sentence, and a verb phrase in passive voice is sometimes called a passive verb.
English allows a number of passive constructions which are not possible in many of the other languages with similar passive formation. These include promotion of an indirect object to subject (as in Tom was given a bag) and promotion of the complement of apreposition (as in Sue was operated on, leaving a stranded preposition).
Use of the English passive varies with writing style and field. Some publications' style sheets discourage use of the passive voice, while others encourage it. Although some purveyors of usage advice, including George Orwell (see Politics and the English Language, 1946) and William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (see The Elements of Style, 1919), discourage the English passive, its usefulness is generally recognized, particularly in cases where the patient is more important than the agent, but also in some cases where it is desired to emphasize the agent.



Use of Passive
Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action.

Example: My bike was stolen.
In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who did it.
Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows:
Example: A mistake was made.
In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have made a mistake.).

Form of Passive
Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular verbs)
Example: A letter was written.
When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:
·       the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
·       the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
·       the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

Examples Of Passive


Passive Sentences with Two Objects 

Rewriting an active sentence with two objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you want to put the focus on.

As you can see in the examples, adding by Rita does not sound very elegant. Thats why it is usually dropped.

Personal and Impersonal Passive
Personal Passive simply means that the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. So every verb that needs an object (transitive verb) can form a personal passive.
Example: They build houses. – Houses are built.

Verbs without an object (intransitive verb) normally cannot form a personal passive sentence (as there is no object that can become the subject of the passive sentence). If you want to use an intransitive verb in passive voice, you need an impersonal construction – therefore this passive is called Impersonal Passive.
Example: he says – it is said

Impersonal Passive is not as common in English as in some other languages (e.g. German, Latin). In English, Impersonal Passive is only possible with verbs of perception (e. g. say, think, know).
Example: They say that women live longer than men. – It is said that women live longer than men.

Although Impersonal Passive is possible here, Personal Passive is more common.
Example: They say that women live longer than men. – Women are said to live longer than men.

Source :

A NOUN PHRASE

A noun phrase or nominal phrase (abbreviated NP) is a phrase which has a noun (or indefinite pronoun) as its head word, or which performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type.
Noun phrases often function as verb subjects and objects, as predicative expressions, and as the complements of prepositions or postpositions. Noun phrases can be embedded inside each other; for instance, the noun phrase some of his constituents contains the shorter noun phrase his constituents.
In some modern theories of grammar, noun phrases with determiners are analyzed as having the determiner rather than the noun as their head; they are then referred to as determiner phrases.

Often a noun phrase is just a noun or a pronoun:
People like to have money.
I am tired.
It is getting late.

or a determiner and a noun …:
Our friends have bought a house in the village.
Those houses are very expensive.

… perhaps with an adjective:
Our closest friends have just bought a new house in the village.

Sometimes the noun phrase begins with a quantifier:
All those children go to school here.
Both of my younger brothers are married
Some people spend a lot of money.

Numbers:
Quantifiers come before determiners, but numbers come after determiners:
My four children go to school here. (All my children go to school here.)
Those two suitcases are mine. (Both those suitcases are mine)
So the noun phrase is built up in this way:
Noun: people; money 
Determiner + noun:
 the village, a house, our friends; those houses
Quantifier + noun:
 some people; a lot of money
Determiner + adjective + noun:
 our closest friends; a new house.
Quantifier + determiner + noun:
 all those children;
Quantifier + determiner + adjective + noun:
 both of my younger brothers

The noun phrase can be quite complicated:
a loaf of nice fresh brown bread
the eight-year-old boy who attempted to rob a sweet shop with a pistol
that attractive young woman in the blue dress sitting over there in the corner
Some words and phrases come after the noun. These are called postmodifiers. A noun phrase can be postmodified in several ways. Here are some examples:

• with a prepositional phrase:
a man with a gun
the boy
 in the blue shirt
the house
 on the corner

• with an –ing phrase:
the man standing over there
the boy
 talking to Angela

• with a relative clause:
the man we met yesterday
the house
 that Jack built
the woman
 who discovered radium
an eight-year-old boy
 who attempted to rob a sweet shop

• with a that clause.
This is very common with reporting or summarising nouns like idea, fact, belief, suggestion:
He’s still very fit, in spite of the fact that he’s over eighty.
She got
 the idea that people didn’t like her.
There was a suggestion
 that the children should be sent home.

• with a to-infinitive.
This is very common after indefinite pronouns and adverbs:
You should take something to read.
I need
 somewhere to sleep.
I’ve got no decent
 shoes to wear.

There may be
 more than one postmodifier:
an eight-year old boy with a gun who tried to rob a sweet shop
that girl
 over there in a green dress drinking a coke

Source :
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/clause-phrase-and-sentence/noun-phrase

SNOW WHITE AND SEVEN DWARFS


Once upon a time in a great castle, there was a beautiful princess. She was very pretty, with blue eyes and long black hair. Her skin was delicate and white, and so she was called Snow White. Snow White had a step mother who was always jealous of Snow White's beauty. Her step mother too was very beautiful, and the magic mirror told her this every day, whenever she asked it.
One day, the step mother asked the magic mirror who the loveliest lady in the land was and the magic mirror answered Snow White was the loveliest in the land. The step mother was very mad. Then he asked her trusty servants to take Snow White into the forest, far away from the Castle and killed her. But the servant didn't kill Snow White, He led the innocent little girl away.
In the forest, little Snow White was alone and scared. She didn't know where she should go. But suddenly she saw a small strange cottage. She wondered who lived there, then she entered the cottage.
Inside the cottage, there was 7 beds and a kitchen. Snow White was to tired to explore the cottage, and suddenly fallen a sleep. In the afternoon, the seven dwarfs who lived in the cottage, came home. They surprised to see there was a young lady there. One dwarf woke her up and asked who was she. Snow White told them her sad story. The seven dwarfs understood the feeling of Snow White and asked her to live with them in the cottage.
Meanwhile in the castle, the servant came back and told to the step mother that Snow White was killed. Then the step mother asked the magic mirror once again who the loveliest in the land was and still the magic mirror answered the Snow White who lived in the small cottage with seven dwarfs was the loveliest one in the land. So the step mother was angry and she planed something bad to Snow White.
Then the step mother disguising herself as an old women who sold a basket of poisoned apples and went to the cottage. In the cottage, the seven dwarfs warned Snow White to not open the door to the stranger.
The step mother finally arrived to the cottage and began to offer Snow White an apple. Snow White refused to open the door but the step mother kept persuade and finally Snow White opened the door and brought an apple then he ate it. So Snow White fallen down with the poisoned apple beside her.
In the afternoon, when the seven dwarfs came home, they were surprised with Snow White who laid down on the floor with pale face and a poisoned apple beside her. The seven dwarfs were sad seeing the Snow White was dying but not die yet. Then the seven dwarfs decided to make a beautiful bed made from a crystal coffin to make Snow White keep alive.
Day by day, the seven dwarfs waited for the miracle came when Snow White suddenly woke up. Then one day, there was a wanderer who actually a prince from far away kingdom saw a beautiful lady was laid down on crystal bed. The wanderer asked the dwarfs what was happened and the dwarfs told him the story.
Heard the Snow White's story, the princes decided to carry her to his Castle and asked the doctor to help her. Then the prince kissed her to show his intention. But suddenly Snow White was back to life. The fact was that the prince's kiss broke the spell. Then the prince asked Snow White to marry him.
From that day on, Snow White lived happily in a great castle. But from time to time, she was drawn back to visit the little cottage down in the forest.

Source :
http://www.belajarbahasainggris.us/2013/03/contoh-narrative-text-snow-white.html