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More advanced passive sentences

hirashin

Sempai
Donor
8 Apr 2004
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Dear native English speakers
Would you correct my passive sentences if needed?
1a) If you go into the area alone, you might be killed.
1b) If you went into the area alone, you might be killed.

2a) If you win first prize, 1,000 dollars will be given to you.
2b) If you win first prize, 1,000 dollars will be given you.

3a) Smoking should not be allowed in the cafeteria.
3b) Smoking ought not to be allowed in the cafeteria.

4a) This report must be submitted by the end of the month.
4b) This report has to be submitted by the end of the month.
4c) This report will be submitted by the end of the month.

5a) Bombing over the innocent people should be stopped immediately.
5b) Bombing over the innocent people should be stopped right away.

6) Mt. Fuji can't be seen from Kyoto .

7a) The old tower is being repaired now.
7b) The old tower has just been repaired.
7c) The old tower has been repaired for the last few weeks.
7d) The old tower has been being repaired for the last few weeks.

8a) A big bridge is being built over the river.
8b) A big bridge has been built over the river.
8c) A big bridge has been being built over the river.

9a) Those cars are being made/built
9b) Those cars have just been made/built..
(Would either "made" or "built" be used in each case?)

10) A lot of computers have been made/built all over the world.

11a) This area is being developed.
11b) This area has just been developed.

12a) This book is being read all over the world.
12b) This book has been read all over the world.

Thanks in advance.

Hirashin
 
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1a is correct. 1b I prefer "If you were to go..." as opposed to "If you went..." but I'm not sure if it's because it's grammatically incorrect or not. 2a is correct. 2b I think that usage without "to" is more archaic and you might be looked at strangely if you said it in everyday conversation. 3a and 3b sound fine to me as is. 4 a, b, and c are correct c has a slightly different meaning than the other two. 5a and 5b sound odd, I would more likely say "Bombing where there are innocent people should be stopped immediately/right away." 6 is correct. 7 a, b, c, and d are all correct with different meanings. 8 a, b, and c are all correct with different meanings. 9 a and b are correct, the correct word there would be made. 10 is correct, although with computers for some reason built is more common than made. 11 a and b are correct with slightly different meanings. 12 a and b are both correct.
 
(Would either "made" or "built" be used in each case?)
Yeah. We're really flimsy with words like this; as a general rule, falling back to "make" will not get you in trouble (unless you're talking about living things).

If you win first prize, 1,000 dollars will be given you.
I don't know if that was ever correct, but it's wrong in the present day. In fact, it has the exact opposite meaning you intend: it means that you are being given to the $1,000. It doesn't cause confusion in this case because that meaning is so absurd, of course; it just sounds horribly wrong.

A big bridge has been being built over the river.
No, that's wrong. You're mixing up two forms which have different meanings. "Is being" indicates that it is ongoing, while "has been" indicates that it has happened at some point in the past (and is over with). To combine the two ideas, you have to rearrange the sentence in some other way. Depending on what you're trying to achieve, one of these would achieve the effect you might be going for:

1. Construction of a big bridge over the river has been ongoing.
2. There was a time when a big bridge was being built over the river.

One shortcut I have heard, and been guilty of myself, is to use "getting". I think this is strictly speaking a terrible construction, but it hides that because you don't have the repetition of "be" one after the other:

"A big bridge has been getting built over the river."

It would be interpreted the same as #1 above.
 
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