Hi,
please have a look at this sentence:
1/ I have heard her sing this song several times.
=> when it is changed into passive voice, should it be:
She has been heard singing this song several times
or:
She has been heard to sing this song several times
=> I’ve searched it on Google and found that both cases are used, so what is the difference between the two usages?
2/ Besides, is my way of changing this following sentence into passive voice right or wrong?
It’s your duty to do this work.
=> It’s your duty to get this worked done
3/ And about these sentences, I think they can’t be changed into passive, can they?
Nobody has slept in this room for long time.
You ordered me about and I was tired for it.
She has been heard to sing this song several times by me.
If you have ‘I have heard her singing this song several times,’ you can have the passive ‘She has been heard singing this song several times by me.
The passives sound odd.
It’s your duty to do this work.
=> It’s your duty to get this worked done
This is not exactly right.
‘It has been allotted as your duty to do this work,’ Where the decision rests on someone else.
‘Getting something done’ is not equal to ‘doing work.’
a. Nobody has slept in this room for long time.
b. You ordered me about and I was tired for it.
a. The first can be written in passive “This room has not been slept in by anyone for a longtime”. If ‘this room has not been used for a long time’ is correct this is also correct.
b. The first section can be written ‘I was ordered about by you,’ but the second section of the sentence may not yield to a passive transformation. I feel that the added section should be reworded.
n avialblah.blogspot.com/
For question 1, you haven’t been very clear on your choice, and you haven’t told the difference between the two usages
For question 2, I agree that my way of changing the sentence into passive voice is not very exact, but are you sure the sentence “It has been allotted as your duty to do this work” is right? (sorry, I don’t mean to cause any vexation but it just sounds weird to me…)
For question 3a: I don’t think if ‘this room has not been used for a long time’ is correct then “This room has not been slept in by anyone for a longtime”
Actually I thought of this way of changing, but I feel so skeptical because “this room” is not the subject of “slept”
For question 3b, could you please clarify the meaning of the sentence for me? I can’t understand it
the two usages
1.Your sentence has only sing and not singing. So the suggestion. I feel that ‘several times’ can also cause problems.
2. The person who has allotted this is not given but it is understood it is someone who has the authority to do so.
3. It is only on the condition that if’this room has not been used by anyone can be acceptable.
Most of your doubts are doubts which will make a grammarian give only very evasive answers. The English language is a beautiful one and will give room to beautiful constructions.
“She has been heard singing this song several times (by me).” But, not every active sentence has a (useful) passive equivalent. To me, that’s one of them.
When on earth would one need the passive form of that?
This doesn’t work with “heard”, IMO.
She has been heard to sing this song several times.
Better:
She has been known to sing this song several times.