Re: Active and Passive please help.
| From: | Padraic Brown <agricola@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, December 16, 2001, 23:40 |
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Am 16.12.01, Almaran Dungeonmaster yscrifef:
> Joe Hill wrote
>
> > My language has no passive sentences. I can't seem to translate it was
> called into and active sentence...
>
> Do you mean you want to convert the phrase "it was called" into an active
> phrase? It might be a little hard, since "to be called" in the current
> meaning is inherently passive in English. However, other languages have an
> active verb for naming things.
Hunh? What's wrong with "I called it X" in your dialect?
> E.g. in dutch, we use the verb "heten" to name things.
We have hight, but that's archaic; and besides, it's middle
voice. [There is a modern SF novel that uses this verb,
though, so perhaps there's hope yet!]
> "Ik heet Maarten"= "I am called Maarten"
We can get around this in English by saying "They call me
Martin", or "My name is Martin".
> Maarten
Padraic.
--
Bethes gwaz vaz ha leal.
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