Collins Cobuild English Grammar (162 page)

One type allows you to focus on the person or thing you are talking about, as in
It was Jason who told them
.

The second type allows you to focus on an action, as in
What they did was break a window and get in that way
or
All I could do was cry
.

The third type allows you to focus on the circumstances of an action, for example the time or the place, as in
It was one o’clock when they left
, or
It was in Paris that they met for the first time
.

Split sentences
are dealt with in the section beginning at paragraph
9.25
.

impersonal
it

9.5
      When you want to say something about a fact, an action, or a particular state, you can use a structure beginning with
it
, for example
It’s strange that he didn’t call
,
It’s easy to laugh
, and
It’s no fun being stupid
.

You also use an
it
structure to talk about the weather or the time, for example
It’s raining
,
It’s a nice day
, and
It’s two o’clock
.

It
structures
are dealt with in the section beginning at paragraph
9.31
.

there
with
be

9.6
      
There
is used followed by
be
and a noun phrase to introduce the idea of the existence or presence of something. This makes the noun phrase, which is new information, the focus of the clause. For more information, see paragraphs
9.46
to
9.55
.

There is
someone in the bushes.

adverbials

9.7
      There are also two types of adverbial that you can use to focus on a clause as a whole, or on different elements of the clause. These include
sentence adverbials
(see the section beginning at paragraph
9.56
) and
focusing adverbials
(see paragraphs
9.79
to
9.90
).

He never writes,
of course
.
Frankly
, I don’t really care what they think.
As a child she was
particularly
close to her elder sister.

Focusing on the thing affected: the passive

9.8
      Many actions involve two people or things – one that performs the action and one that is affected by the action. These actions are typically referred to using
transitive verbs
, that is, verbs that have an object.
Transitive verbs
are explained fully in
Chapter 3
.

In English the person or thing you want to talk about is usually put first as the subject of the clause. So, when you want to talk about someone or something that is the
performer
of an action, you make them the subject of the verb and you use an
active
form of the verb. The other person or thing is made the
object
of the verb.

However, you may want to focus on the person or thing affected by an action, which would be the object of an active form of the verb. In that case, you make that person or thing the subject of a
passive
form of the verb.

For example, you could report the same event by using an active form of a verb, as in
The dog has eaten our dinner
or by using a passive form of a verb, as in
Our dinner has been eaten by the dog
, depending on whether you wanted to focus on the dog or your dinner.

formation of the passive

9.9
      Passive forms consist of an appropriate form of
be
followed by the
-ed
participle of the verb. For example, the passive form of the present simple of
eat
is the present simple of
be
followed by
eaten
:
It is eaten
.

She escaped uninjured but her boyfriend
was shot
in the chest.
He
was being treated
for a stomach ulcer.
He thinks such events
could have been avoided
.

For details of
passive forms of verbs
, see the Reference Section.

not mentioning the person or thing that performed the action

9.10
    When you use the passive form of a verb, you do not have to mention the person or thing responsible for the action (the
performer
).

You may want to do this for one of these reasons:

because you do not know who or what the performer is

He’
s
almost certainly
been delayed
.
The fence between the two properties
had been removed
.

because it is not important who or what the performer is

I
was told
that it would be perfectly quiet.
Such items
should be
carefully
packed
in boxes.

because it is obvious who or what the performer is

She found that she
wasn’t being paid
the same salary as him.
…the number of children who
have been vaccinated
against measles.

because the performer has already been mentioned

His pictures of dogs
were drawn
with great humour.
The government responded quickly, and new measures
were passed
which strengthened their powers.

because people in general are the performers

Both of these books
can be obtained
from the public library.
It is very strange and
has
never
been
clearly
explained
.

because you do not want to say who performed an action, or you want to distance yourself from your own action.

The original
has been destroyed
.
I’
ve been told
you wished to see me.

9.11
    In accounts of processes and scientific experiments, the passive is used without the performer being mentioned because the focus is on what happens and not on who or what makes it happen.

The principle of bottling is very simple. Food
is put
in jars, the jars and their contents
are heated
to a temperature which
is maintained
long enough to ensure that all bacteria, moulds and viruses
are destroyed
.

9.12
    The passive form of reporting verbs is often used in an impersonal
it
structure, when it is clear whose words or thoughts you are giving or when you are giving the words or thoughts of people in general. See
9.45
in the section on
impersonal
it
structures.