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Podcast  3 - my hometown, gloucester, and the passive voice

8/25/2016

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In this week’s podcast, I chatted a little about my hometown, Gloucester, and talked about the passive voice. I also answered a question about whether to use try + infinitive or try + verb-ing.
First, let’s have a look at (and watch) some of places and events I talked about on the podcast.

Click on the links and see what I was talking about.
Gloucester Cathedral / King Edwards II’s shrine / Gloucester Rugby /
 Kingsholm (Gloucester Rugby Stadium) / Cheese-rolling / The River Severn /Surfing the Severn Bore

Now, let’s have a look at the grammar.

The Passive Voice


The passive is formed with ‘be’ + past participle. Here are five sentences from this week’s podcast which contain the passive voice.

  1. Gloucester was founded in the year 97 by the Romans. (Past simple passive)
  2. (The cathedral) was built almost a thousand years ago.(Past simple passive)
  3. Games are usually played on Saturday afternoons. (Present simple passive)
  4. The cheese is thrown from the top of the hill . . . (Present simple passive)
  5. The wave is surfed by people from all over the world. (Present simple passive)


In sentences 1 and 5 we include the agent(s) of the verb (the person/people doing the actions). Here the preposition ‘by’ introduces the agent.

We use the passive voice for a number of reasons.

  1. To emphasise the person or object the action is happening to (as in example sentences 1 and 5).
  2. When the agent of the verb (the people doing the action) is unknown (as in example sentences 2 and 4)
  3. When the agent of the verb (the people doing the action) is obvious (as in example sentence 3 – it is obvious that games are played by Gloucester rugby club)


For more information about the passive click here. For online exercises practising the passive click here. To watch a video about the passive click here.

Question Time


Takahiro from Japan wrote in to ask whether it is correct to use try + infinitive or try + verb-ing. In the podcast, I said both are correct but the meaning will be different.

Try + infinitive

When a person tries to do something, they make an  effort to do it. They may succeed or they may fail. However, it is more often used to talk about a failed effort.

For example,

I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer your phone.
I tried to warn him, but he just didn’t listen.

Try + verb-ing

When a person tries doing something, they do it with the goal of finding out what will happen when they do it.

For example,

The computer stopped working, so I tried turning it off and on again. It worked!
I tried playing golf once. I was terrible! Never again.


That brings me to the end of this blog post. I hope you found it useful.

​All the best,
Mark
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    About the podcast

    I've created these mini podcasts to help students improve their grammar, learn some new words and practise their listening.

    The podcast is available for downloading on iTunes.

    On the earlier podcasts, I chat a bit, talk about different areas of grammar and vocabulary, and sometimes do interviews. The level of the English in the podcasts is around Intermediate (B1).

    On the newer podcasts, I read my graded readers aloud. This is a great way to practise listening skills and improve pronunciation.
     
    ​ If you have any grammar or vocabulary questions, please send me a message on Soundcloud or Instagram. You can also email me at snowowlenglish@gmail.com . I'll do my best to answer your questions during the podcast on a special slot called Question Time.

    Enjoy the podcast and good luck with your studies!  :- )

    Also, please leave a review. I'd love to hear what you think.

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