In this week’s lesson we are going to focus on the so-called “Impersonal Passives”, a special kind of sentences which are only possible with verbs of perception such as “think”, “say”, “know”, “believe”, “rumour”, etc.
1) First of all, let’s review all types of passive sentences (including impersonal passives, the “causative have” and passives with two objects) with this presentation.
2) Here you will find some theory in English about impersonal passives. Notice that there are two different ways to form the passive of verbs like those mentioned above.
3) Now, let’s try this set of exercises:
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
Exercise 7
4) Translate the following sentences into English:
- Se rumorea que la Primera Dama de EEUU, Michelle Obama, ha cambiado de estilista.
- Se pensaba que era el hombre más viejo de Tokyo.
- Se dice que docenas de activistas anti-sistema han sido arrestados tras las protestas del viernes.
- Se cree que, actualmente, Corea del Norte está fabricando misiles Scud.
- Sollihull ha existido como asentamiento desde hace varios cientos de años y se sabe que los anglosajones han estado viviendo en esta zona.
5) Use the above exercises to practice with your language exchange. You don't have a language exchange? What are you doing? You must have one if you don't have a teacher.
6) Don’t forget to learn new vocabulary. Extract all the words you don't know from this article from Newsweek Magazine titled “The Last Witnesses”. Look the new words up in an English-English dictionary like this one.
7) Listen and read this story. You should learn all the vocabulary and practice pronunciation. And, for the most daring, read this article from Forbes.
8) Finally, write a story of about 200/250 words using as many sentences like those you have learnt in this unit. You can use examples from the exercises above.
If you have done all these exercises, then you've scored a 10! Well done!
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Key to exercise 4:
- US First Lady Michelle Obama is rumoured to have changed her stylist.
- He was thought to be the oldest man in Tokyo.
- Dozens of anti-system activists are said to have been arrested following Friday's protests.
- North Korea is now thought to be producing Scud missiles.
- Solihull has existed as a settlement for several hundred years and the Anglo Saxons are known to have been living in this area.
