Passive voice

Question

Many thanks for your answers.Sorry for more questions:1.  This is present perfect passive voice:  'Her original family has never been found by anyone.'  Would this be a correct 'active' version of this sentence:  'No-one has ever found her original family'.2.  This is past simple passive voice:  'The girls were discovered in 1920'.  Would this be a correct 'active' version:  'In 1920 the girls were found.'

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

anonymous1. This is present perfect passive voice: 'Her original family has never been found by anyone.'

Yes, it is. That's right.

anonymousWould this be a correct 'active' version of this sentence:
'No one has ever found her original family'.

Yes. Correct.

anonymous2. This is past simple passive voice: 'The girls were discovered in 1920'. Would this be a correct 'active' version? 'In 1920 the girls were found.'

Compare the verb phrases were discovered and were found. It's the same grammatical pattern. It's "were" and a past participle. Therefore, they can't represent different tenses. They are both past simple passive voice.

Just substituting a synonym (discovered > found) has nothing to do with active and passive. Moving 'in 1920' from one place to another in the sentence doesn't change anything about the voice either.

The original passive sentence doesn't mention the agent, so we need the indefinite "someone".

Someone discovered the girls in 1920.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you very much indeed for the explanation.

Passive voice

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