Passive ot active voice problem

Question

HI all!!

i have some confusions. please clarify me.

here is the sentences where i have some flaws. i do believe that there sentences are correct, however i could nt figure out when or in which situations i need to write such sentences.

Examples are given here:

1. The cars increased these days.

can anyone explain the grammar based on what the sentence mentioned in No1 has been made?

Similarly examples:

2. Numbers fell markedly.

3. the numbers in house have increased.

i will really appreciate if someone can clarify this .

Thanks in advance.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Anonymous 1. The cars increased these days.
2. Numbers fell markedly.

3. the numbers in house have increased. (2) and (3) are fine.
(2) is simple past tense. They fell sometime in the past.
(3) is present perfect tense. They increased sometime in the very recent past.

The difficulty lies in the two verbs you are working with.
"To fall" and "to increase" deal with some changing situation. They can describe things which change in a brief instant or over hundreds of years.
The tax rate increased last year. This is a single event which took place at one moment in time, so simple past is the best tense to use.
The numbers have increased. We understand the present perfect tense to mean that this has happened recently. We don't really know from the sentence whether the change happened all at once, or over a period of time.
Numbers fell markedly. When? We could be talking about something that happened twenty years ago. Did they fall over a period of time or all at once? It doesn't say. (simple past tense.)

In the case of #1, "The cars increased these days" is not really a natural thing to say, although it's not gramatically incorrect. Your other choice, "The cars are increased these days" is also unnatural, although it's not incorrect, and it could work in certain contexts.
I'd suggest "The cars have increased these days (present perfect tense), or "The cars are increasing these days (present continuous tense).
When you use the expression "these days" in your sentence, you clearly indicate that you're talking about the present time, or the very recent past. The present perfect tense does this.
"These days" also suggests that the change took place over a period of time. The continuous tense does this.

- A.

Passive ot active voice problem

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