Passive voice - a question

[ata_x]

Some problems with changin the sentence into passive voice.
The sentence:
"I have written the letter" should be changed into "The letter has been
written."

But how would you change the sentence:
"I have been writing a letter"

I thought I knew ......

[Gość: Max]

ata_x napisała:

> Some problems with changin the sentence into passive voice.
> The sentence:
> "I have written the letter" should be changed into "The letter has been
> written."
>
> But how would you change the sentence:
> "I have been writing a letter"


The letter is being written?


>
> I thought I knew ......

[Gość: salmotrutta]

...how to split hair?...get a copy of Talmud...

[Gość: cc]

I wouldn't.

[Gość: Bartek]

Present Perfect Continous Tense:
The letter has been being written.

[soup_nazi]

Gość portalu: Bartek napisał(a):

> Present Perfect Continous Tense:
> The letter has been being written.

Mechanically correct, but I'd like to see a native speaker anywhere using this
structure in writing or speech. Doesn't sound like real life.

[Gość: NO!]

soup_nazi napisał:

> Gość portalu: Bartek napisał(a):
>
> > Present Perfect Continous Tense:
> > The letter has been being written.
>
> Mechanically correct, but I'd like to see a native speaker anywhere using
this
> structure in writing or speech. Doesn't sound like real life.



I have a news for you. Its not correct. Not even remotely!

[soup_nazi]

Gość portalu: NO! napisał(a):

> soup_nazi napisał:
>
> > Gość portalu: Bartek napisał(a):
> >
> > > Present Perfect Continous Tense:
> > > The letter has been being written.
> >
> > Mechanically correct, but I'd like to see a native speaker anywhere using
> this
> > structure in writing or speech. Doesn't sound like real life.
>
>
>
> I have a news for you. Its not correct. Not even remotely!
>

I have news for you. You stink. Of ignorance and arrogance.

Note: The progressive/continuous forms of the perfect aspects/tenses are hardly
ever used in the passive voice.

www.usingenglish.com/handouts/intermediate/the-passive-voice.html
"hardly ever" <> "never"

"I have a news for you" - hehehe - "I have news for you"

"Its not correct" - hehehe - "It's not correct"

Well?

[ata_x]

soup_nazi - Thank you very much for the link. Everything is clear for me now.
That's exactly what satisfies me. The explanation is similar to that in
Practical English Usage by Michael Swan, so in my opinion nothing can be added.

Tahnks for help !

[soup_nazi]

ata_x napisała:

> soup_nazi - Thank you very much for the link. Everything is clear for me now.
> That's exactly what satisfies me. The explanation is similar to that in
> Practical English Usage by Michael Swan, so in my opinion nothing can be
added.
>
> Tahnks for help !

You're welcome. I found another serious source - Gallaudet University in
Washington, but you probably don't need that now. There must be many other
books and websites supporting our view.

Although I haven't looked at some things in English grammar for years now, I
had the thing somewhere in the back of my mind. Hey, once you learned it - you
keep it!

[mona.mi]

I have a news for you, hehehe

[soup_nazi]

mona.mi napisał:

> I have a news for you, hehehe

Shove it.

[Gość: kidding]

Gość portalu: Bartek napisał(a):

> Present Perfect Continous Tense:
> The letter has been being written.

The letter has been being written???????????

I hope you're kidding.

[soup_nazi]

Gość portalu: kidding napisał(a):

> Gość portalu: Bartek napisał(a):
>
> > Present Perfect Continous Tense:
> > The letter has been being written.
>
> The letter has been being written???????????
>
> I hope you're kidding.

He is not. Stop translating those things to Polish and then understand. You'll
find yourself in dead end street too often. Just feel it - and hit the books,
hehehe.

No Passive of Present Perfect Continuous

[Gość: english-test.net]

The idea of the Passive Voice is to focus on the result rather than the
activity. That's why there usually is no Passive Form of the Present Perfect
Continuous. So, you would simply say: 'the letter has been written'.

[tynski]

A quote:

"An enterprising student of mine (a non-native speaker of
English) made the following observation in a lecture on
the passive: "English does not appear to admit passives
in the continuous perfect." So for example, there is no
acceptable passive counterpart to the active:
I had been giving a lecture to an unwashed horde.
*An unwashed horde had been being given a lecture.
This seems quite unacceptable to me, but over the last
few days I have perhaps been letting my linguist's
intuitions overide my native-speaker intuitions. The
following does not seem so bad:
My car has been being cleaned all week.
And, with BE as a main verb (copula), the following is
not too bad at all:
John has been being naughty since this morning.
Mark Ellison tells me he finds the get passives a little
easier to deal with:
My car has been getting cleaned all week.
Shelly Harrison suggested that the problem is quite
simply a classic performance error. The sentences are
grammatical but English speakers have a great deal of
trouble processing them. He says he can accept such
things as grammatical but can't give them an
interpretation. He doesn't know what they mean!
However, he suggests that if a frame is provided then
they might be interpretable:
"How's the research paper going?"
"Oh, it's being finished."
"Sure! It's been being finished all semester!"
And then I stumbled upon this nice example in James
Blish's (1964) "Doctor Mirabilis" (p193 in the (British)
Arrow edition of 1984):
"On the instant of recognition, Roger knew that
he had been being followed."

They are starting to sound better and better!"

[soup_nazi]

Any further questions anyone?

[Gość: wannabekiwi]

nope
all's clear as mud

[karta2]

Not so fast, the structure is used. Perhaps not at Walmart...


A specialist is attempting to diagnose her as having multiple myeloma, however,
she does not seem to have significant symptoms of the disease. She does have an
elevated white count....but has had if for as long as she has been being
tested....one of her daughters has the same elevations and has been diagosed
with SLE, but a form that is not particularly acitve and produces "flares" only
about every twelve years.


NAPA is very pleased that EPA has removed us from its list of target facilities
subject to the new Maximum Achievable Control Technology standards. Had that
not happened, the heaviest burden for the HMA industry would have been being
forced to carry the stigma of being labeled a major source of hazardous air
pollution," said Mike Acott, NAPA President.


Does anyone know, in what year the present grave marker replaced the defaced
original tombstone, which had been being chipped at by visitors who were
seeking to take home with them a memento mori?


The SiO2 nano-sphere powders, which themselves have been found to catalyze
hydroxylation reactions, have also been used to form large surface area
selective Cu/SiO2 catalysts. PS metallization techniques have been being used
to fabricate ferromagnetic nickel, silver, and iron-coated silica cored
nanospheres as this technique is being extended to gate all around (GAAT)
nanotransistors constructed from the silica sheathed nanowires.


Rather, I’m suggesting that in the natural flow of things—the future shouldn’t
be that daunting. What have they been doing up until now? What have been the
areas of training and productivity that have been being emphasized? In other
words, this moment in time should have been anticipated and prepared for so
that the next move wouldn’t be a leap—just another step.

[zegar4]

Too good to let it slide into oblivion.

[mona.mi]

Not in Walmart, that's for sure, but it's a virtually unknown way of talking in
the media. There is no law against having a literary obsessive disorder.

[Gość: fazz]

Some more examples just in case

Face Time


It's been being done for longer than you think...
People - not computers - have been performing facial recognition for centuries
and longer. It's not a new thing for police and security personnel to study the
photos of criminals and scan crowds and public or private places themselves.
How long have "Wanted" posters been in existence? It's not the facial
recognition aspect of this technology that's scary or new, or the fact that
someone may be watching you in a public place (it happens all the time). What's
scary is what computers can do with the data that can't be done by people.

Mr Speaker, the government will continue to do what it has done to date, which
is first of all to accept the state of the law, which is that we cannot provide
for the issuing of any further leases over the land previously occupied at
Fairbairn. Secondly, we will continue negotiations and discussions with the
drag-racing organisation on an alternative site. Therefore, the motion that Mr
Corbell has moved is, in a sense, quite redundant in that exactly what is being
urged in the form of his motion now before the chamber is already being done
and has been being done for some.


In that context, the money that the PRI government used to rescue the bank was
shown to be one of the largest frauds in the history of the world. This rescue
will not mean anything concrete for the debtors, or for the investors, but
will, on the other hand, be a great deal for the owners of the banks. We say
this because this rescue has not only not lightened the tremendous weight of
debts of the small and medium investors, or of credit card debt, rather these
debts continue, and for several years now have been being paid for interest on
past interest. Additionally, it has been being done with public funds, when the
assets of the bank owners would have been more than sufficient to cover the
accounts payable and the investors' debts

3rd September 2003:- Changed name to Creatures of Darkness.. haven't had time
to update for a while...but ground work has been being done on the site
offline... Some more artwork should be gracing the site in the near future
(thanx Hayley) Also in the process of defining exactly what will be available
on this site..


...surely the ideal ending would have been being chased through a mangrove
swamp by
a gun weilding meryl streep and the death of your imaginary alter-ego/twin

.Had that not happened, the heaviest burden for the HMA industry would have been
being forced to carry the stigma of being labeled a major source of
hazardous ...


You see, he had been being pursued by his first victim
- the owner of the vehicle he had recently stolen


... The hibernation facilities could have just accommodated them all and looked
as if
these had been being prepared for use when disaster struck, but only the
one ...

see ya

[soup_nazi]

mona.mi napisał:

> Not in Walmart, that's for sure, but it's a virtually unknown way of talking

Especially for some morons

in
>
> the media.

Particularly, if the only channel you watch is TV Polonia, hehehe

There is no law against having a literary obsessive disorder.

What is even worse, there's no law against stupidity. That's why you're allowed
to write your moronic posts, hehehe.

nie podniecaj sie, bydlaczku

[Gość: m]

if anything all the above was a serious sedative

So what would have been wanting being worth discussing if we would not
have been being enagaging in have been being linguistically obsessing?

g'nite all