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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

been read

English answer:

Has anyone (already) read this book?

Added to glossary by Alexander Grabowski
Apr 12, 2020 12:00
4 yrs ago
54 viewers *
English term

been read

English Art/Literary General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters grammar/English usage
Has this book been read?

How one can re-phrase this sentence having not used the passive voice?

In general, is a use of the passive voice allowed in the good style English language?
Responses
4 +7 Has anyone (already) read this book?
References
The simple future passive voice (will be...
Change log

Apr 12, 2020 12:22: writeaway changed "Field (write-in)" from "books�" to "grammar/English usage"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Yvonne Gallagher

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Discussion

Tony M Apr 13, 2020:
@ Asker Speakers of Russian-group languages often ask for hard-and-fast, universally applicable rules in EN grammar, but by and large, EN simply doesn't work that way! Apart from the basics, for every "rule" one tried to invent, it's almost always possible to come up with a perfectly acceptable exception!

In the case of your suggested example — which, by that way, contains several more serious stylistic errors — one might rewrite it thus:

"Under [the present] flux of legislation and improvements to business applications in the company holding, the local support should provide for flexible support, easy scalability, and easy solving of current onsite support issues in all the regions where it operates."

Right at the beginning, we see another problem compared to RU — when to use an indef. article / a def. article / no article at all?

Also, I think 'company holding' sounds really weird — I'm assuming you probably meant 'holding company'?
The repeating of 'support', and also 'easy', is poor style, especially as avoidable, as is the use of the nouns 'support', 'scaleability' — and then the gerund 'solving'.
José Patrício Apr 13, 2020:
No doubt about it but: see ref comm
philgoddard Apr 12, 2020:
Hardly a sweeping statement. "There are plenty of exceptions". "As a rule of thumb". And Tony agrees with me.
AllegroTrans Apr 12, 2020:
@ Phil "as a rule of thumb good English avoids the passive" - sorry I cannot agree with such a sweeping statement.
Alexander Grabowski (asker) Apr 12, 2020:
@Phil Taken. Thank you. But I assume in the resource, there should definitely be a possibility to inquire the open-ended (general) issues thus making it possible to be grammatical in all the subsequent particular cases. An not I right?
Alexander Grabowski (asker) Apr 12, 2020:
@all colleagues -- Good, many thanks. Then how can it be with the following snippet:
Under flux of legislation and improvements ****being made**** to business applications in the company holding, the local support should provide for flexible support, easy scalability, and easy solving of current onsite support issues in all the regions where it operates. ?
Alexander Grabowski (asker) Apr 12, 2020:
But Sir, Is there a distinct brink between a passive voice use, and a verbal derived adjective?
philgoddard Apr 12, 2020:
Alexander I deleted your previous question because it was a general grammar query requiring an open-ended answer, which is not what KudoZ is intended for. This is better because it relates to a specific phrase.

There are plenty of exceptions, but as a rule of thumb good English avoids the passive.
Alexander Grabowski (asker) Apr 12, 2020:
But Sir, Is there a distinct brink between a passive voice use, and a verbal derived adjective?
Tony M Apr 12, 2020:
@ Asker Yes, it is always possible to rephrase any sentence to avoid the use of the passive — as long as it is a 'true' passive! For example, "Is he injured?" isn't really a passive, inasmuch as the past participle here is considered more like a simple adjective, just as if it were "Is he cold?".
However, in seeking to avoid the passive, we need to examine carefully the exact viewpoint of what is being expressed, in order to make sure we don't distort that; and also, seeking slavishly to avoid it can of course lead to some awfully clumsy constructions! My own personal rule-of-thumb is to avoid it when possible, unless it is being used for stylistic effect — or the result of avoiding it is even uglier than using the passive in the first place!
Alexander Grabowski (asker) Apr 12, 2020:
José, thank you. But, is it always possible to rephrase any sentence having avoided a passive voice use?
I doubt :)
José Patrício Apr 12, 2020:
Yes.
Has anybody already read this book?

Responses

+7
18 mins
Selected

Has anyone (already) read this book?

Of course the Passive is used" and there are reasons why it's used. Any good grammar book will give you those reasons, mainly to do with not needing to know the instigator of the action/subject of verb

https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/revising/passive-voice/

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Note added at 9 days (2020-04-21 12:14:39 GMT) Post-grading
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glad to hElp. And belated Happy Easter
Peer comment(s):
agree Jennifer Caisley : Absolutely spot on!
4 mins
Thanks:-)
agree Tony M
16 mins
Many thanks:-)
agree Evgeniya Staykova
1 hr
Thanks!
agree philgoddard
2 hrs
Thanks:-)
agree AllegroTrans
2 hrs
Thanks:-)
agree Tina Vonhof (X)
5 hrs
Thanks:-)
agree Joshua Parker
6 hrs
Thanks!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you Yvonne, Happy Orthodox Easter for you!"

Reference comments

21 hrs
Reference:

The simple future passive voice (will be + pp) tops the ranking of commonly used passive form with 50 hits, followed by present simple passive voice, both in singular and plural form of the verbs (is + past participle; and are + past participle),
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Tense-aspect-combination...
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