The Language of International Conflicts

2023-10-13

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1
  • The war between Israel and Hamas has drawn a lot of international attention this week.
  • 2
  • News reports, videos, and social media posts have informed people about the latest events in the conflict.
  • 3
  • What kinds of language do reporters, journalists, or even citizens use during these conflicts?
  • 4
  • That will be the subject of this week's Everyday Grammar.
  • 5
  • Conflict is not a happy subject. But learning how to understand the language surrounding such events is important.
  • 6
  • When we look at the language used to describe conflicts, verbs have special importance.
  • 7
  • Violent conflicts are about actions - one group doing something to another group. Verbs are the words we use to describe actions.
  • 8
  • We can break apart the verbs into two general groups: active and passive forms.
  • 9
  • When we say the term active verb, we mean the relationship between the verb and the subject of the sentence.
  • 10
  • We call a verb an active verb when the subject of the sentence performs the action. Consider this example:
  • 11
  • Tom kicked the ball.
  • 12
  • In the sentence, the subject, Tom, does the action - kicking.
  • 13
  • The action is done to the object - the ball.
  • 14
  • In other words, we have this structure: subject - verb - object.
  • 15
  • Passive verbs tell us when something is done to someone or something.
  • 16
  • In other words, the subject is being acted upon. The subject is not acting.
  • 17
  • We make a verb passive by introducing the auxiliary verb "be," putting the verb in its past participial form, and sometimes by introducing a prepositional phrase.
  • 18
  • Let's take an example.
  • 19
  • Here is our active sentence:
  • 20
  • Tom kicked the ball.
  • 21
  • A passive sentence might be this:
  • 22
  • The ball was kicked by Tom.
  • 23
  • So far, we have explored active and passive verbs at the sentence level.
  • 24
  • But the same ideas hold true at the level of a clause as well.
  • 25
  • A clause has a subject and a predicate. When a clause stands on its own, we say it is a sentence.
  • 26
  • But sometimes two or more clauses make up a sentence.
  • 27
  • So, why are these ideas important?
  • 28
  • The language surrounding international conflicts often contains a mixture of active and passive structures.
  • 29
  • Some reports or social media posts might contain a little more of the passive voice or a little more of the active voice.
  • 30
  • But most reports will have some kind of mix.
  • 31
  • Let's explore one example from the Voice of America.
  • 32
  • Linda Gradstein describes some events in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
  • 33
  • Here is some information about events in Gaza:
  • 34
  • Palestinian health officials said several dozen Palestinians including women and children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabaliya refugee camp Monday in Gaza.
  • 35
  • In our example, we have an active form (health officials said....) as well as a passive form (were killed).
  • 36
  • The same idea - the mixing of active and passive forms - holds true in many other places in the report.
  • 37
  • For example, here is some information about events in Israel.
  • 38
  • The bodies of more than 260 young music festival goers were discovered Sunday.
  • 39
  • Hamas gunman kidnapped more than 130 Israelis - many from the festival - and took them to Gaza.
  • 40
  • Let's use this final example for a homework assignment.
  • 41
  • You just heard a mixture of active and passive structures.
  • 42
  • Can you identify the active and passive forms?
  • 43
  • Write to us your answers in the comments section of our website, learningenglish.voanews.com, or send us an email to learningenglish@voanews.com.
  • 44
  • I'm John Russell.
  • 1
  • The war between Israel and Hamas has drawn a lot of international attention this week. News reports, videos, and social media posts have informed people about the latest events in the conflict.
  • 2
  • What kinds of language do reporters, journalists, or even citizens use during these conflicts?
  • 3
  • That will be the subject of this week's Everyday Grammar.
  • 4
  • International conflicts
  • 5
  • Conflict is not a happy subject. But learning how to understand the language surrounding such events is important.
  • 6
  • When we look at the language used to describe conflicts, verbs have special importance. Violent conflicts are about actions - one group doing something to another group. Verbs are the words we use to describe actions.
  • 7
  • We can break apart the verbs into two general groups: active and passive forms.
  • 8
  • When we say the term active verb, we mean the relationship between the verb and the subject of the sentence. We call a verb an active verb when the subject of the sentence performs the action. Consider this example:
  • 9
  • Tom kicked the ball.
  • 10
  • In the sentence, the subject, Tom, does the action - kicking. The action is done to the object - the ball.
  • 11
  • In other words, we have this structure: subject - verb - object.
  • 12
  • Passive verbs tell us when something is done to someone or something. In other words, the subject is being acted upon. The subject is not acting.
  • 13
  • We make a verb passive by introducing the auxiliary verb "be," putting the verb in its past participial form, and sometimes by introducing a prepositional phrase.
  • 14
  • Let's take an example.
  • 15
  • Here is our active sentence:
  • 16
  • Tom kicked the ball.
  • 17
  • A passive sentence might be this:
  • 18
  • The ball was kicked by Tom.
  • 19
  • So far, we have explored active and passive verbs at the sentence level. But the same ideas hold true at the level of a clause as well. A clause has a subject and a predicate. When a clause stands on its own, we say it is a sentence. But sometimes two or more clauses make up a sentence.
  • 20
  • Why does this matter?
  • 21
  • So, why are these ideas important?
  • 22
  • The language surrounding international conflicts often contains a mixture of active and passive structures. Some reports or social media posts might contain a little more of the passive voice or a little more of the active voice. But most reports will have some kind of mix.
  • 23
  • Let's explore one example from the Voice of America.
  • 24
  • Linda Gradstein describes some events in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Here is some information about events in Gaza:
  • 25
  • Palestinian health officials said several dozen Palestinians including women and children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabaliya refugee camp Monday in Gaza.
  • 26
  • In our example, we have an active form (health officials said....) as well as a passive form (were killed).
  • 27
  • The same idea - the mixing of active and passive forms - holds true in many other places in the report.
  • 28
  • For example, here is some information about events in Israel.
  • 29
  • The bodies of more than 260 young music festival goers were discovered Sunday. Hamas gunman kidnapped more than 130 Israelis - many from the festival - and took them to Gaza.
  • 30
  • Homework
  • 31
  • Let's use this final example for a homework assignment. You just heard a mixture of active and passive structures. Can you identify the active and passive forms?
  • 32
  • Write to us your answers in the comments section of our website, learningenglish.voanews.com, or send us an email to learningenglish@voanews.com.
  • 33
  • I'm John Russell.
  • 34
  • John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.
  • 35
  • _______________________________________________
  • 36
  • Words in This Story
  • 37
  • auxiliary verb - n. a verb (such as have or be) that is used with another verb to show the verb's tense, to form a question, etc.
  • 38
  • past participle - n. the form of the verb that is used with "be" in passive constructions
  • 39
  • prepositional phrase - n. a phrase that begins with a preposition and ends in a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase
  • 40
  • predicate - n. the part of a sentence that expresses what is said about the subject