Linguagum

Today’s sentence

Hi. How are you? Do you remember the conditionals we learned some time ago? We are going to revise them for a few days.

If you make dinner, I’ll wash up.

• Right, we studied this MONTHS ago. Do you remember it?
• If + present tense + subject + will + infinitive.
• I’ll = I will.
• We use the present tense even though we are talking about the future (If you make dinner tonight, for example.)
• You could also say “I’ll do the washing up,” like yesterday’s sentence.

A negative conditional tomorrow. For homework, try and remember how to say it. See you tomorrow!

Today’s sentence

Hi! And here it is - the last sentence in the series on the present perfect passive.

The washing up has been done and the house has been cleaned.

• To do the washing up = to clean all the dirty plates and dishes.
• Someone has done the washing up and has also cleaned the house.
• It has been done very recently - that’s why use this tense.
• It doesn’t matter who did it - what’s important is that everything is clean and tidy.
• We could also say: “I have done the washing up and I have cleaned the house.”
• The information is very similar but subtly different in the sense that, suddenly, I’m talking about MYSELF as well as the housework.

We are going to do a little revision over the next few days. Bye for now!

Today’s sentence

Hello, how are you today? Here’s the new passive sentence for today.

Have you ever been burgled?

• Have you ever…? = at any time in your life up to and including the present.
• To burgle = to go into someone’s house and steal their things.
• The structure is: have + subject + been + past participle.
• You could also say: “Has anyone ever burgled your house?”
• But you don’t need to. It’s much more common to say this.
• Another example? Have you ever been caught for speeding? (Caught = past participle of catch.)(Have the police ever caught you for driving too fast?)

We’ll look at the last sentence in this series tomorrow. See you then!

Today’s sentence

Welcome back. Continuing with yesterday’s theme, here’s the new sentence.

You’ve been told not to do that a hundred times.

• This is the kind of thing parents / teachers say to children.
• What the person really means is: “I have told you many times in the past not to do that.”
• It also suggests that other people have told the child the same thing.
• What’s important is that the sentence is about the CHILD and not about the ADULT.
• “I have told you… ” puts the focus of the sentence on the speaker. However, we want the focus to be on the child. That’s why we use the passive form.
• The present perfect (have been…) is used here to talk about a period of time starting in the past and continuing to this moment.

As always, another sentence tomorrow… don’t miss it!

Today’s sentence

Hello again. Here’s the latest sentence in the theme on passives.

Jim’s been taken to hospital.

• This means that an ambulance came and took Jim to the hospital.
• Because we are saying “he’s been taken”, this tells us that he is still in the hospital.
• If he had come home again, we would have said: “Jim was taken to the hospital.”
• Why do we use this structure? Because it is pointless to talk about ambulances arriving and taking him away - it’s unimportant.
• What’s important is that Jim’s gone to hospital (and he didn’t drive himself there - someone took him).

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow!

Today’s sentence

Welcome back. We’re continuing with passive sentences today using the present perfect.

Smith’s Computers Ltd has just been bought out by Microsoft.

• This is just like yesterday’s sentence, and is equally untrue.
• The structure: have + (just = very, very recently) + been + past participle (buy / bought / bought.)
• What’s important in this sentence? Smith’s Computers.
• Microsoft is of secondary importance.
• If Microsoft were the important part of the sentence, we would say: “Microsoft has just bought out…”
• Bought out, incidentally, is an expression / phrasal verb used for one company buying another company.

I hope you are starting to get this. We’ll continue with it tomorrow. Bye!

Today’s sentence

Hello, how are you? For the next few days we’re going to look at the present perfect passive tense.

A cure for the common cold has recently been discovered.

• Do you remember yesterday’s sentence “…which has never been climbed”?
• “…has recently been discovered” is the same structure.
• It is the present perfect passive and is structured like this:
• Have + been (past participle of to be) + past participle of verb.
• Basically, it is like saying this: “someone has recently discovered a cure for the common cold.”
• The thing is, though, that “someone” is less important than, in this case, the discovery.
• This structure is quite formal. A less formal way of saying the same thing is: “They’ve just found a cure for…”
• By the way, it’s not true. I made it up.

Hope that made sense… we’ll take another look at it tomorrow - bye for now!