Exprimer le passif, le discours reporté et poser une question

J’utilise correctement le passif

We generally use the Passive in the following situations:

• When we are not interested in the doers of the action or when we do not know them.

Ex: The trees have been cut.

• When we are solely interested in the person, animal or object that experiences an action rather than in the doer of the action.

Ex: The house was built in 2010. (We are interested in the house, not in who built it.)

• When we don’t want to take responsibility or when we don’t want to be accusing.

Ex: The window’s glasses have been broken. (We don’t want to be accusing)

• When we want to be more formal especially in writing.

Ex: Our planet is wrapped in a mass of gases.

The form of the Passive is:

Subject + Auxiliary ‘’to be’’ + Past participle

• Present Simple: Street children are often ill-treated.
• Present Continuous: The school is being built.
• Present Perfect: The boy has been punished.
• Preterit: The meeting was held last week.
• Past Continuous: The market was being cleaned yesterday morning.
• Past Perfect: The president had been reelected once.
• The future: She will be invited to the wedding.
• The Conditional: The job would be done.
• Modals: The people must be sensitized.
  This exercise can be done easily.

The impersonal Passive

The impersonal Passive is used to report what is said by people or by an unspecified group of people.

• Common verbs used in impersonal passive forms:

[Say, believe, report, declare, suggest, consider, estimate, assume, announce, claim, expect, propose, suppose, understand, agree, allege, find, know, mention … ]

• It is said that…

(It + Passive verb + that + Subject + verb + object)

Ex: It is said that the President is to resign.

It is said that the company recruits hundreds of young people.

• To infinitive impersonal passive

(Subject + passive verb + to infinitive)

Ex: The thief is believed to live in the surroundings.
The exam is considered to be difficult.

The Passive with the expression “Have something done” 

(Subject + to have + object + past participle)

Ex: I am having my bike repaired by the mechanic.
He had his house built last year.

J’utilise correctement le discours reporté

Reporting someone’s speech in an indirect way means that we don’t report exactly his/her words but we do it in an indirect way. We usually report the speech someone made in the past and that’s the reason why in the reported speech a certain number of changes occur. 

• We step one tense back
   
  • The present simple / The Preterit
    
  • The present continuous / The Past continuous
    
  • The present perfect /The Past perfect or Present perfect
    
  • The Future simple / The Conditional present
  • The preterit / The Past perfect or Preterit
  • The past continuous / The past perfect continuous or Past continuous
  • The past perfect / The past perfect
  • Etc…

• Time or place expressions change
  
  
  • Today / That day
    
  • Tomorrow / The following or next day
  • Next year / The following or next year
  • Yesterday / The previous day or the day before
  • Last week / The previous week or the week before
  • Now / Then
  • Here / There
  • Tonight / That night
  • Etc…

• Pronouns or adjectives change

Example: Teacher: “I won’t tolerate any misbehaviour during my class today”

Student: The teacher said (that) he wouldn’t tolerate any misbehaviour during his class that day.

Nurse: “The doctor is busy now”

Patient: The nurse told me last time that the doctor was busy then.

Mechanic: “I repaired your bike yesterday.”

Young boy: The mechanic informed me that he had repaired / repaired my bike the day before.                 

NB: Sometimes we report someone speech in a present context. Here there is no tense or time expression changes but only the changes of pronouns.

Example: Boss: “I am busy now, I will call you tomorrow.”

Secretary: The boss says (that) he is busy now and that he will call you tomorrow.

• Reporting orders, commands, requests, advice, warnings and threats.

Here we use to / not to + infinitive after the reporting verb

“Alpha, clean the board.”

The teacher asked Alpha to clean the board.

“Don’t hold your meeting in the house.”

He warned us not to hold our meeting there.

Je pose correctement les questions

A. Yes or No questions 

A yes or no question is a question starting with an auxiliary verb:

Examples: Are you a student? Do you live in Goudomp? Have you done your homework? Will they attend the meeting? Can you speak English?

We answer to a yes or no question by using: Yes + subject + auxiliary or No + subject + auxiliary + not

Ex: Ali: Are you fine?

Nafi: Yes, I am.

Ali: Do you speak Italian?

Nafi: No, I don’t. But I speak English.

We can also answer to a yes or no question by using the following expressions: certainly (not), of course (not), absolutely (not), definitely, I don’t know, maybe, perhaps etc…

Ex: Ali: Can she do this exercise?

Nafi: certainly not.

Ali: Had you informed the teacher before missing the test?

Nafi: Of course.

B. Wh- questions

A wh-question is a question starting with a WH- words:

Ex: Where do you live? What do you like? Why did they miss the class? How have you done the exercise? How many students have joined the English club?

To answer a wh-question, we need to specify some information concerning: people, animals, things, the place, the cause, the number, the moment, the distance, the possession, the purpose, the frequency etc… 

Ex: Ali: Where are you going?

Nafi: I am going to school.

Ali: Why did you miss the meeting of yesterday.

Nafi: Because I wasn’t feeling well.

Here are the common question words and what they are used for:

Who (subject and object) ------------ used for People

Whom (object only) -------------- used for People

What ----------------- used for Things, Animals, Actions, Situations, Professions

Where --------------- used for The Place

Why ------------------- used for The Cause or Reason

Which ----------------- used for The Choice

When ------------------ used The Moment or Time

Whose ---------------- used for The Possession

How ------------------- used for The Manner

How many ----------- used for The Number

How much ----------- used for The quantity, The Amount, The Price

How Long ------------ used for The Duration

How often ----------- used for The Frequency

How far --------------- used for The Distance

How old -------------- used for The Age

How deep -------------used for The Depth (la profondeur)

How high ------------- used for The Height (la hauteur)

How heavy ----------- used for The Weight (le poid)

How fast ---------------used for The Speed (la vitesse)

How large/big --------- used for The Size (la taille)

What time ------------- used for The Time

What … for /For what ------ used for The Purpose (Le but)

Since when ---------- used for The Starting point

Example: Teacher: Where do you live?

Student: I live in Dakar.

Teacher: How many brothers have you got?

Student: I have got 2 brothers.

C. Tag questions

A question tag is a mini-question that is often put at the end of a sentence in spoken English:

Ex: He is a good student, isn’t he?

You have done a good job, haven’t you?

She can’t play the guitar, can she?

Tag questions are formed with auxiliary verbs (ex: do, does, did, have, can, will etc…) + Subjects (pronouns) ex: (he, she, I, we, they, etc…)

The rule of tags is normally this:

Ex: The boss won’t dismiss him, will he?

They were worried about the problem, weren’t they?

• Irregular tags

The tag of ‘I am’ is ‘aren’t I?’
Ex: I am working on mathematics exercises, aren’t I?

After the Imperative of the 2nd person singular or plural we often use: ‘will you?’ but we can also use ‘can you?’ or ‘would you?’ or ‘could you?’
Ex: Have a seat please, will you?

After the imperative of the 1st person plural, we use ‘shall we?’
Ex: Let’s go to watch TV, shall we?

After “’this’ ‘that’ ‘nothing’ ‘something’ and ‘anything’” we use the pronoun ‘it’
Ex: that was a real concern for us, wasn’t it?

This isn’t your notebook, is it?
Something will happen, won’t it?

NB: -After ‘these’ and ‘those’ we have ‘they’
Ex: These are our classmates, aren’t they?

'Nothing' is negative so it goes with an affirmative tag.
Nothing could disturb my grandfather, could it?

After the following pronouns: “somebody, someone, nobody, no one, anybody, anyone, everybody, everyone” we use the pronoun ‘they’.
Ex: Somebody had cleaned the board before the arrival of the teacher, hadn’t they?

NB: ‘Nobody’ and ‘no one’ are negative so they have affirmative tags:
Ex: Nobody saw the thief, did they?

After negative or semi-negative adverbs or pronouns “never, hardly, barely, scarcely, rarely, seldom, no, none, neither”, the sentence is considered as negative so, the tag is affirmative:
Ex: He has never travelled abroad, has he?
None of them managed to finish on time, did they?