Grammatical question: I had been playing football. (past perfect continuous)

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Dear friends,

I have a garmmatical question please;
Change following sentences into passive voice :

  1. I will be playing football. (future continuous tense).
    Is it : Football will be played? if yes, why not “football will be being played” ??

  2. I have been playing football. (present perfect continuous).
    Is it : Football have been played? if yes, why not “Football have been being played” ??

  3. I had been playing football. (past perfect continuous).
    Is it : Football had been played? if yes, why not “Football had been being played” ??

Thanks you for your valuable help.

2

Hello, Si2007,

I’m not sure where you got your first choice ideas from, but it seems like in every example, your second choice (when you ask “Why not _____”) was actually the correct one.

Trust your instincts, they were on target. :wink:

3

The exercise is rather absurd, because it’s so unusual to talk about football playing in the passive voice.

It’s an especially weird idea to discuss oneself playing football in the passive voice. It would sound like someone is ashamed that he has played football and is trying to hide the fact.

Making those sentences passive will result in sentences that no one would ever really use.