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A question

aliceangelliu

China

I was confused by the intro of Woodstock,it says "The Woodstock was attended by hippies who…....",I was wondering why it uses preposition "by",could you explain this sentence to me,thanks.

05:09 AM Sep 02 2009 |

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Teacher AmySuper Member!

United States

Hi! Good question. "Woodstock was attended by hippies" is actually an example of the passive voice. We use passive voice to emphasize the object of a sentence (Woodstock) rather than the subject (hippies).

Passive voice is formed with the verb to be + past participle, and when there is a known subject, it is preceded by the preposition by. Another example of the passive voice is: "The student's question was answered by her teacher." Smile

Hope that helps!

Amy

10:23 PM Sep 02 2009 |