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Subject:Re: Passive voice and the sticking to of guns From:Stan Brown <stbrown -at- NACS -dot- NET> Date:Tue, 2 Apr 1996 20:41:57 -0100
Quoth Jack Shaw <jsh -at- SOFTWARE-AG -dot- DE> in TECHWR-L Digest:
>Stan,
>Sorry to differ with you, but the active present conditional voice:
>"(You/one/etc.) could/would/should draw a line in the sand."
>-- converts to the conditional present passive voice:
>"A line in the sand could/would/should be drawn."
You're disagreeing with someone else, not me. I never made any
statement either way about that example.
The example I was talking about -- in private email, by the way, so
I'm not sure why you posted a reply publicly -- was this one:
: >``Product A is available with options B and C.''
and that, as I said, is *not* in the passive voice. Indeed, "to be",
being intransitive, can never be made passive.
Regards,
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems Cleveland, Ohio USA +1 216 371-0043
email: stbrown -at- nacs -dot- net Web: http://www.nacs.net/~stbrown/
