The verbal group: tenses

went
, he
is
going, he
didn't
go

If you are concerned about indicating possibility or your attitude on what is being
said you choose a modal operator.
e.g. he
might
go, he
should
go

If you want to indicate secondary tense you choose an auxiliary
e.g. he might
have
gone, she is not
being
paid, it will
be being
determined

If you want to concentrate on the thing affected by an action rather than the doer
of the action you choose passive rather than active.
e.g. he
completed
the experiment; the experiment
was completed
We have already discussed time operators, modal operators and auxiliaries but we
haven't looked yet at the difference between active and passive voice.
1.3
Active and Passive Voice
A statement of just one clause may have the following elements:

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Basic English Grammar Module: Unit 2B. Independent Learning Resources
© Learning Centre University of Sydney. This Unit may be copied for individual student use.
7
Subject ^ Verbal group ^ Object ^ Complement ^ Adjunct
We want to look at a statement with just four of these elements:
He
will finish


the experiment
in two days.
Subject
Verbal Group (Active)

Object
Adjunct
We say that this statement is active because the ‘doer’ of the action,
he
, is in first
position as Subject and the ‘receiver’ of the action,
the experiment
, is the object.
Sometimes, however, we want to focus on the person or thing affected by the action, not
the person or thing that does it and so we could re-­‐write the above sentence in the
following way:
The experiment

will be finished

in two days.