I'm confused about PAST and PASSIVE

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caijq
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Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:14 am
Status: Learner of English

I'm confused about PAST and PASSIVE

Post by caijq »

Today, I read a sentence "The buffet we had last night consisted of several different Thai dishes."
I learned grammar from my teacher in class who said that be done is meaning passive.
The other way to say is that "The buffet is consisted of several different Thai dishes. ".
I thought the word "consisted" is meaning passive but the sentence without "be".
Who can explain the sentence's grammar? thank you.
VipinGaur
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Status: Teacher of English

Re: I'm confused about PAST and PASSIVE

Post by VipinGaur »

Here 'consisted of' is used as the second form of the verb to reflect simple past tense where we simply use the second form of the verb. So it is not a passive sentence. It simply means that buffet was made up of several Thai dishes. Hope this helps.
terryfrd
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Re: I'm confused about PAST and PASSIVE

Post by terryfrd »

This is really a great question, one that could give a retired EFL teacher like myself a bit of a headache. First of all the verb s "consist of' -- a phrasal verb. Secondly, this is not really a passive situation. It is not like "The buffet was prepared by a team of Thai chefs" where the chefs clearly are the doers. There are no doers in your sentence. "Consisted of" only tells you what the buffet contained and nothing about who prepared it. Focus on meaning here. Don't worry too much about grammatical structure.
alexanderfinn
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Re: I'm confused about PAST and PASSIVE

Post by alexanderfinn »

'The buffet is consisted .......' is not correct. The sentence is active and the verb 'consist' has to agree with the subject (buffet).

Some phrasal verbs could be used here in a passive form. For example 'The buffet was made up of .......'
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