4. Past Tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to place an action or situation in past time. In languages, which have a past tense, it
thus provides a grammatical means of indicating that the event being referred to look place in the past.
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When we want to indicate that something happened at a specific time in the past, we use the past simple. We can either say it happen, using a time
adverb, or assume that the listener already knows when it happen or can understand this from the context.
Form of Past Tense: Affirmative form
S + waswere + V2 S + did + V2 I was an employer last month.
I studied English in Paris. Negative form
S + to be waswere + V2 S + did + V1 I was not an employer last month.
I did not study in Paris. Interrogative form
Did + S + V1 + ? Waswere + S + V + ? Did you study in Paris last year?
Were you in class yesterday?
5. The Passive Voice
According to Eugene J. Hall, passive voice is a sentence, which arranged so that what would be the object of an active becomes the subject.
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There are some facts about the passive; 1 the passive is usually formed with be and the
past participle. 2 Only verbs that are transitive in the active can be used in the
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En.m.wikipedia.orgwikiPast_tense
12
Eugene J. Hall, Grammar For Use, A Realistic Approach to Grammar Study for Immediate and Practical Application, Jakarta: Bina Rupa Aksara, 1993, p. 214
passive. 3 The agent, the performer of the action, is expressed by a prepositional phrase with “by”. 4 The passive occurs in all tenses, with all the
verb phrase combinations and with all the modal auxiliaries and idiomatic verb phrases.
The passive can be said to have a grammatical meaning rather than a lexical one. Is is a focus construction that exists to put the patient, i.e., the
receiver or undergoer of an action, in subject position. The subject is acted upon and is thus “passive.” Indeed, Shibitani 1985 has shown that the
passive “defocuses” the agent. No matter when it is used or what its form,
then, it will have this core meaning.
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In general, we tend to use the active voice. That is when a subject does an action to an object.
Ex: Somebody stole my wallet S
V O
The passive voice is used when we want to emphasize the action verb and the object of a sentence rather than subject. This means that the subject
either less important than the action itself of that we do not know who or what the subject is.
Ex: Passive : Napa Valley is known for its excellent wines. Active
: many people know Napa Valley for its excellent wines.
The passive voice is a grammatical construction in which the subject of clause denotes the recipient of the action rather than the performer the agent.
The passive voice in English is formed periphrastically, with an auxiliary verb plus a participle of a verb, usually a transitive verb.
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Celse Muria. Marianne, and Diane Larsen Freeman, The Grammar Book an ESLEFL Teacher‟s Course Second Edition, United State of America: Heinle Heinle Publishers, 1999, p.
347
In the passive, the object of an active verb becomes the subject of the
passive verb. The subject of an active verb follows by in a passive sentence. The noun that follows by
is called the “agent”.
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Ex: Active : Leonard Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.
Passive : The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonard Da Vinci. Agent
Passive voice can be used without referring to the agent of an action; it may therefore be used when the agent is unknown or unimportant, of the
speaker does not wish to mention the agent.
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From that statement, we can conclude that passive voice is can be used not only for a known actor but for the unknown actor too. For example;
- Three stones were robbed last night. The identity of the agent may be
unknown -
A new cancer drug was discovered. The identity of the agent may be unimportant in the context
- Mistakes were made on this project. The speaker may not wish to
identity the agent
The passive of an active tense if formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb.
The subject of the active verb becomes “agent” of the passive verb. The agent is very often not mentioned. When it is mentioned it is preceded by “by” and
placed at the end of the clause.
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The active and passive voices are have a same tenses. If the active voice is present, the passive voice is should be present too by adding the V3. Agent
14
Azar Betty Schramfer, Understanding and Using English Grammar Third Edition, United State: Longman, 1999, p. 208.
15
http:en.wikipedia.orgwikipresent_tenseEngish_passive_voice
16
A.J. Thomson and A.V. Martinet, A Practical English Grammar, Fourth Edition London: Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 302
is called for the subject of the active verb, when the agent is mentioned will be joined by “by” before the object.
Usually agent or actor needs to be mentioned first in a sentence, so that we know what we are talking about. However, sometimes the agent or actor is
less important that the action or the result; sometimes the actor is unknown, or should not be mentioned. By changing the form of the verb and varying word
order, we can shift emphasis away from the actor. The actor is either omitted or relegated to a subordinate position in the sentence.
When someone wants to use a passive voice, heshe has to know that the sentence can be changed into the passive or not. Passive voice can only be
applied in case of having an acting subject. One of difficulties that causes the students make mistake or errors in
learning passive is it is difficult for the students to understand teacher‟s explanation. The students usually confuse in using to be is, am, are, was,
were corresponded with the subject as its antecedence in a sentence. Passive voice in English is different from passive voice in Indonesian. In English,
passive voice has some of be that must be followed, each tense has different form of be. Passive voice in Indonesian language is not like that, it does not
have any to be or auxiliary verb and tense. Example: Adi belajar bahasa Inggris. active
Bahasa Inggris dipelajari oleh Adi. passive
6. The form of Passive Voice of Simple Present Tense and Past Tense
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