Passive Verb Forms Part 2

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about passive verb forms which included an exercise in which you had to read an article about Michael Jackson, find the passive forms, identity the tense for each one and then decide why the passive is used in each case. Doing this exercise should give you a clear understanding of how and why passive structures are used in English.

To read the first part of this post, click here.

Below you will see a table in which I explain the passive sentences which were used in the article about Michael Jackson. This table will explain which tense each sentence is in, and why the passive is used in each case:

If you have any questions, just add a comment at the bottom of the page.

#	Example	Tense	Why is the passive used?
1	Paramedics were called to the singer’s Beverly Hills home	Past simple	It is not important/we don’t know who called the paramedics
2	He was pronounced dead	Past simple	It’s obvious that doctors at the hospital pronounced him dead
3	Jackson had been due to perform a series of comeback concerts	Past perfect	Actually, it is impossible to put this sentence in an active form. To be due to do something is just a fixed passive expression
4	He is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest	Present simple	Obviously, doctors/experts/journalists believe this
5	Jackson’s body was flown	Past simple	We don’t know/it’s unimportant/obvious who flew the plane – and the story is all about Jackson’s body.
6	a post-mortem was carried out	Past simple	Obviously, doctors carried out the post mortem
7	The results have not yet been published.	Present perfect	We don’t know/it’s not important/it’s obvious who publish the reports. Doctors or lawyers or something…
8	Concerns over Michael’s health were raised last month	Past simple	We don’t know – just that people were concerned. Putting the concern at the beginning (as a noun) is better than saying ‘people were concerned’ – the important thing is the concern, not the people.
9	four of Jackson’s planned comeback concerts were postponed	Past simple	Obviously, they were postponed by Jackson’s managers & promotors
10	the dates had been moved	Past perfect	Again, we know who moved them – it was his managers

I hope this post has helped you to understand passives a bit more. Remember, if you have any questions about passive verb forms, just add a comment below!

Luke.

Word Forming

I’ve recently had the pleasure of preparing a highly-motivated class of 9 for the BEC Vantage exam which they took on Saturday 29th May (fingers crossed they’ll all pass!) This is a Cambridge business exam for upper-intermediate students and is the same level as the FCE (Cambridge First Certificate) however, in my opinion it’s slightly harder as you must have a good range of business vocabulary. One of the things that helped my class with this is exam was learning how to form words in English and so I thought that this may help you with your English too. My advice is to learn the main prefixes and suffixes that we use in English and then practise word building by adding them to the ‘base’ form of the word. Why learn one word when you can learn 4 instead?!

So what is a prefix?

Prefixes are at the beginning of word and they often change the meaning of the word. Here is a list of some common prefixes and what they mean:

Anti - against e.g. anti-war
Co - with e.g. coordinate
Dis, in, il, im, ir, un - opposite or not, e.g. discomfort, indirect, impractical, irregular,
unimportant
Ex - former
Mis - badly or wrongly e.g. misbehave
Re - again e.g. reread

So what is a suffix?

Suffixes are at the end of the word and they change the form of a word and these endings show us which are nouns, verbs, adjective and adverbs. Here is a list of some common suffixes and what they mean:

Able, al, ant, ent, ful, ible, ic, ical, ive, less, ous - adjectives e.g. profitable, vital, tolerant, excellent, successful, feasible, artistic, musical, creative, hopeless, fabulous

Ance, ee, ence, er, hood, ism, ist, ity, ment, ness, sion, tion, ship, - nouns e.g. ignorance, employee, independence, employer, neighbourhood, Buddhism, vitality, employment, fitness, decision, induction, friendship

Ify, ise - verbs e.g. intensify, criticise

Ably, ibly, ily, ly - adverbs e.g. predictably,reliably, happily, absolutely

OK, let’s see if you can use this information to form words below. Fill in the gaps using the base form of the word given in brackets.

1. She was delighted when she heard that she had been .................... (success) in her interview.
2. He always waited for her to choose the film, he was so......................... (decide)
3. Due to the recession a lot of people don’t have jobs and therefore............................. (employ) is high.
4. When selecting our new suppliers, ......................(rely) is the most important benefit to us.
5. The sales forecast was promising but the results were ..............................(dramatic) better.


I’ll put the correct answers on our blog next week, good luck!

Glossary

Highly-motivated - Very very keen to do or achieve something

Fingers crossed - To hope that something turns out the way you want it to

IBC Course

Today I started teaching a new class on the IBC course at Holland Park. IBC stands for International Business Communication. It's our class for professionals who want to improve their business English for international communication.

I have taught this class a number of times before and it is always an interesting experience for me. The people who enrol on this course are usually professionals who work in top positions in different areas of business, so they are always interesting and dynamic people with experience or expertise in their particular field. They're busy people which means they have to make the most of their time here in London.

The course runs for 6 hours a day, but the participants are always willing to concentrate and focus throughout each lesson. It's inspiring for me to see students who know how to manage their time, and to be efficient. It just goes to show - when you work full time, you don't have much time for anything else, and that includes studying English, so you have to take advantage of any learning opportunities.

If you're young, and haven't started working full time yet, you should learn a lesson from my current IBC class. Make the most of your time, focus and try to learn and practise as much as you can, in every minute of your lesson. Do it now when you have time, because later on you will be rushed off your feet answering emails and attending meetings and you won't have any spare moments to brush up on your English.

The students in my class are motivated, and that motivates me too. As well as that, they are usually a bit older and more experienced. This means that they have plenty of things to say about business. I have met directors of large successful companies, former prime ministers, television journalists and even movie producers on this course, and they all have their own stories to tell and their own insight into how to achieve business success in their own particular context. As well as helping them learn, I have also learned a lot from them, and it makes me realise that one of the most satisfying things about this job is the contact I have with interesting people from many countries. In the end, it proves to me that it is people, not money, that make the world go round.

stands for - We use this expression to explain what an acronym (letters that represent a longer phrase) means. For example, FBI stands for Federal Bureau of Investigation.

enrol (v) - This means to sign up for a course

field - this is your 'area of expertise'. For example, my field is English language teaching.

make the most of their time - This means to use your time as effectively as possible, without wasting any.

It just goes to show - This is an expression which we use when we point out that something proves something else to be true. E.g. I see you're going to the dentist again. It just goes to show that you shouldn't eat so much sugar.

To take advantage of something - This means to use something as much as possible in order to get the benefit of it. It is similar to 'make the most of'. For example - you should take advantage of the free internet access at school and use it to save money.

rushed off your feet - to be very busy

brush up on - to improve something, typically language

money makes the world go round - this is an old saying, which means that money is what motivates everyone in the world to do things, and it is money which is responsible for making everything happen.

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