Learning English The passive Michael Westphal from Germany asks: Would you be so kind as to explain the use of the passive voice in combination with the many tenses that it is used with? The passive voice is used when we want to focus attention on th...
Learning English continuous forms of the passive Abdul Weli from Somalia writes: I would like to know more about the passive . Most reference books say that the present perfect continuous tense has no passive form. Yet, at the same time, we have seen...
Learn It The passive with modals, future and infinitive forms Gosia from Poland writes: Could you explain to me how be is used in this sentence: Sofia Coppola has become only the third woman to be nominated for the best director at the Oscars . I und...
Learning English 'to do' and 'to have done' Two questions about the causitive Juan Manuel Flores Garcia Rojas from Mexico asks: Can you explain to me about causative sentences because I have difficulty in understanding them. Shariq Khan from Pakistan...
BBC Learning English Ask about English Pseudo Passive A question from Saeksan from Thailand: I just read a piece of news about the use of fire works to celebrate Easter in Greece, and found a sentence as follows: A sixty-eight year old dealer had his...
Learning English past tense usage Krasimir Nikolov from Bulgaria writes: I have a problem with tenses and try to change them as I write short letters, but I never know if I am right or not. Could you please give me some advice? Zeinal Abidin Busu fro...
Learning English Basic form, past tense and past participle Carmen from Hong Kong asks: May I ask what the past tense of build is? Should it be 慴uilded� or 慴uilt�? Are there any rules for us to follow, whether we need to add -ed or can it jus...
Learning English 'has', 'have' and 'had' Sachin Chitale asks: I have a lot of problem using has , have and had . It confuses me very much. What is the rule of using these three words, considering all the possible situations? When used as a main verb,...
Learning English past simple or past perfect? Niki from Hungary writes: The following sentence has been giving me a headache for weeks now. Could you please give me the correct answer and justify it as well? When was the last time you had eaten / ate...
Learn It past = present or future: unreal uses of past forms Rashid from Saudi Arabia writes: Why do we use the past simple here? It's late, it's time we went. Roger Woodham replies: We sometimes use past tenses to describe things in the present or f...
