LEG 7.2. – The Passive Voice: Continuous Tenses
FORM
| Active | Passive | |
| Present Continuous | They are dealing with your case but you won’t get a rapid answer. | Your case is being dealt with, but you won’t get a rapid answer. |
| Past Continuous | They were drafting the due diligence report all day yesterday. | The due diligence report was being drafted all day yesterday. |
| Present Perfect Continuous | They have been violating human rights for years. | Human rights have been being violated for years. |
| Past Perfect Continuous | They had been negotiating the out-of-court settlement for weeks before they signed it. | The out-of-court settlement had been being negotiated for weeks before it was signed. |
| Future Continuous | They will be interviewing candidates all day next Monday. | Candidates will be being interviewed all day next Monday. |
| Future Perfect Continuous | This time tomorrow they will have been interrogating me for 36 hours. | This time tomorrow I will have been being interrogated for 36 hours. |
USES
1 Describing an action that is, was or will be in progress at a certain time.
The same grammatical rules of continuous tenses apply to the passive sentences as to the the active sentences (see Units 1, 2, 3 and 4 on present, past and future tenses)
Our company is being acquired by one of its competitors.
2 Suggesting that noone is responsible for what has happened.
Think about the impact of a politician or an administrator saying
We were making mistakes. OR Mistakes were being made.
In the second sentence the person acknowledges the wrongdoing and disavows responsibility for it at the same time.
Similarly, if your client is the defendant, you might use passive voice to describe what happened.
At the time of the alleged crime, the funds were being transferred to another account through automated systems.
The invoices had already been verified before the transactions were approved.
On the other hand, if your client is the victim or the claimant, use active voice and active verbs to link the defendant to the claim or the crime.
The consultant was leaking trade secrets to competitors during the negotiations.
EXERCISE 1
Continuous tenses in passive voice. Choose the passive sentence(s) which have the same meaning as the original active sentence. Only choose the sentence with „by” if it is necessary to say who did the action. Sometimes more than one sentence is correct.
They are prepairing the longest closing speech ever.
The board is discussing the proposal on Monday.
I didn’t realise someone was Iistening to my telephone conversations.
This time next week they will be trying your case.
It took me some time to realise that they had been stealing company money.
The legal team will be reviewing the contract tomorrow afternoon.
The National Bank has been raising the bank base rate for more than a year.
The office is spending too little money on cyber security.
The police is guarding the house where they found a dead man to prevent it from someone entering it and interfering with the evidence.
(…)
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EXERCISE 2
Defendants, victims and claimants. Choose the passive or the active sentence depending on whether you represent the defendant, the victim or the claimant.
Mr Nagy was leaking confidential information to the press last year.
OR
Confidential information was being leaked to the press last year
Much More Money Bank have been mishandling Ms. Antal’s account.
OR
The account has been being mishandled.
Ms Balogh has been stealing money from the shareholders by practicing insider trading.
OR
Money has been stolen from the shareholders by practicing insider trading.
(…)
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Kapcsolódó tartalmak:
Contract Law III - Task 1
Contract Law III - Task 2
Contract Law III - Task 3
YOUR PROGRESS MAP IN THE "LEGAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR" COURSE
LEG 1.1. – The Present Continuous Tense
LEG 7.1. – The Passive Voice: Present Tenses
LEG 8.1. – Conditionals: First Conditional
LEG 8.2. – Conditionals: Second Conditional
LEG 8.3. – Conditionals: Third Conditional
LEG 8.4. – Conditionals: Zero and Mixed Conditionals
Lingua Juris Szaknyelvi Központ
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