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Carter Lee Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

Question of Active voice question in a sentence

Dear All,


I came across some sentence like "when was the word first used in English?" or "when is the last time guy opened the car door for you?" when I googling.


From here, I think most sentences are following the unique rule which is most sentence used in passive sentence.

For example, first sentence was that "~was~used~". second sentence was that "~is~opened~".


If I catch it correctly, can I use the sentence not used passive voice? such as "when was the word first use in English"? something example what not used in passive voice in a sentence?

  

Top answer

" This is passive. someone used the word (active) -> the word was used (passive) -> when was the word used? " This is completely different.

— GPY

  • " This is passive.
  • someone used the word (active) -> the word was used (passive) -> when was the word used?
  • " This is completely different.
  • The first sentence is asking about when a word was used (passive).
  • This sentence is not asking about when a "last time" was opened, but about when the event "a guy opened the car door" (active) happened.
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2 Answers
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Carter Lee"when was the word first used in English?"

This is passive.

someone used the word (active) -> the word was used (passive) -> when was the word used? (passive question)

Carter Lee"when was the last time (that) a guy opened the car door for you?"

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Carter Lee I think most sentences are following the unique rule which is most sentence used in passive sentence.

There is no rule about using active or passive voice.
We normally use passive voice when we do not have a specific subject that we are interested in.
Consider this pair:

When was this word first used in English? (passive)
Wh
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