Michael
These sentences, in what tense are they? - He is called by his nickname. - This food is made with pork. I have not found any tense in English that has that structure: Subject + verb to be + verb (simple past) + Complement. Please help me.
Mar 24, 2023 7:40 PM
Answers · 7
2
called and made here are actually in the "passive voice". (other more technically astute teachers might correct me here). structure: Subject + to be (conjugated) + past participle + rest of sentence So i think you might want to ask your english teacher (or google) for a class on the passive voice. If you google "active voice versus passive voice" you will get the important basics for yourself.
March 24, 2023
2
They're both in the Present Simple tense. What you're confused about is that they're in the Passive voice rather than in the Active voice.
March 24, 2023
1
In both cases the only verb is “is”. Present tense. The past participles are not part of the verb. They act as adjectives.
March 25, 2023
1
Right. They are in passive voice, It can be used with all tenses, but only transitive verbs, those ones that requires an object to receive an action.
March 25, 2023
1
Hi Michael, there are lots of standard phrases in English which use this structure to be +past tense verb I just put a query into ChatGPT and got a list of some of the most common ones. To be gone - the chicken I put on the table is gone. To be lost - I am lost. Should I turn left or right? Who knows. To be stolen - OMG, my purse has been stolen. To be killed - many people are killed every year by mosquitoes. To be broken - I'm so unhappy. I think my iPhone is broken. To be injured - he fell off his horse and was injured. To be damaged - I dropped my tablet, and now the screen is damaged. To be used - this kitchen implement is used to blend the soup. To be worn - hats and scarves are not worn in summer. To be born - She was born in 1964. I hope that helps
March 24, 2023
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