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The Active Causative - Coggle Diagram
The Active Causative
We often use the passive to describe a process or emphasize the action rather than who is doing the action. Some of the TOEIC Grammar questions will test your knowledge on the structure and use of the passive form. We’ll first take a look at the structure.
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Present simple: am, is, are Present continuous: am / is / are being
Past simple: was, were Past continuous: was / were being
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In the above examples, we don’t know who included the fees, who will write the quotation, nor who have asked the operators. This information is not considered necessary or important. However, it can be included if necessary by adding the ‘by’ after the past participle:
One of the most famous social network companies was founded by a college drop-out.
Usage
The passive is used more commonly in writing especially in reports, textbooks, in industry, science and technology to describe processes, and for official rules. We use the passive in these cases because we don’t always know who the ‘agent’ is.
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We sometimes use ‘get’ instead of ‘be’.
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Don’t confuse the past participle (-ed or irregular form) with the present participle (-ing)
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Causative Verbs
Causative verbs are used to show that a person causes, makes or enables another person to do something or make something happen. The structure of these types of sentences can be confusing as the verb after the causative verb may be in either the infinitive without ‘to’, the ‘to-infinitive’ or the past participle depending on the causative verb used. On the TOEIC, you will need to understand these differences.