The Language of International Conflicts
2023-10-13
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1The war between Israel and Hamas has drawn a lot of international attention this week.
2News reports, videos, and social media posts have informed people about the latest events in the conflict.
3What kinds of language do reporters, journalists, or even citizens use during these conflicts?
4That will be the subject of this week's Everyday Grammar.
5Conflict is not a happy subject. But learning how to understand the language surrounding such events is important.
6When we look at the language used to describe conflicts, verbs have special importance.
7Violent conflicts are about actions - one group doing something to another group. Verbs are the words we use to describe actions.
8We can break apart the verbs into two general groups: active and passive forms.
9When we say the term active verb, we mean the relationship between the verb and the subject of the sentence.
10We call a verb an active verb when the subject of the sentence performs the action. Consider this example:
11Tom kicked the ball.
12In the sentence, the subject, Tom, does the action - kicking.
13The action is done to the object - the ball.
14In other words, we have this structure: subject - verb - object.
15Passive verbs tell us when something is done to someone or something.
16In other words, the subject is being acted upon. The subject is not acting.
17We 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.
18Let's take an example.
19Here is our active sentence:
20Tom kicked the ball.
21A passive sentence might be this:
22The ball was kicked by Tom.
23So far, we have explored active and passive verbs at the sentence level.
24But the same ideas hold true at the level of a clause as well.
25A clause has a subject and a predicate. When a clause stands on its own, we say it is a sentence.
26But sometimes two or more clauses make up a sentence.
27So, why are these ideas important?
28The language surrounding international conflicts often contains a mixture of active and passive structures.
29Some reports or social media posts might contain a little more of the passive voice or a little more of the active voice.
30But most reports will have some kind of mix.
31Let's explore one example from the Voice of America.
32Linda Gradstein describes some events in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
33Here is some information about events in Gaza:
34Palestinian health officials said several dozen Palestinians including women and children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabaliya refugee camp Monday in Gaza.
35In our example, we have an active form (health officials said....) as well as a passive form (were killed).
36The same idea - the mixing of active and passive forms - holds true in many other places in the report.
37For example, here is some information about events in Israel.
38The bodies of more than 260 young music festival goers were discovered Sunday.
39Hamas gunman kidnapped more than 130 Israelis - many from the festival - and took them to Gaza.
40Let's use this final example for a homework assignment.
41You just heard a mixture of active and passive structures.
42Can you identify the active and passive forms?
43Write to us your answers in the comments section of our website, learningenglish.voanews.com, or send us an email to learningenglish@voanews.com.
44I'm John Russell.
1The 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. 2What kinds of language do reporters, journalists, or even citizens use during these conflicts? 3That will be the subject of this week's Everyday Grammar. 4International conflicts 5Conflict is not a happy subject. But learning how to understand the language surrounding such events is important. 6When 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. 7We can break apart the verbs into two general groups: active and passive forms. 8When 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: 9Tom kicked the ball. 10In the sentence, the subject, Tom, does the action - kicking. The action is done to the object - the ball. 11In other words, we have this structure: subject - verb - object. 12Passive 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. 13We 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. 14Let's take an example. 15Here is our active sentence: 16Tom kicked the ball. 17A passive sentence might be this: 18The ball was kicked by Tom. 19So 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. 20Why does this matter? 21So, why are these ideas important? 22The 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. 23Let's explore one example from the Voice of America. 24Linda Gradstein describes some events in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Here is some information about events in Gaza: 25Palestinian health officials said several dozen Palestinians including women and children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabaliya refugee camp Monday in Gaza. 26In our example, we have an active form (health officials said....) as well as a passive form (were killed). 27The same idea - the mixing of active and passive forms - holds true in many other places in the report. 28For example, here is some information about events in Israel. 29The 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. 30Homework 31Let'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? 32Write to us your answers in the comments section of our website, learningenglish.voanews.com, or send us an email to learningenglish@voanews.com. 33I'm John Russell. 34John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. 35_______________________________________________ 36Words in This Story 37auxiliary 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. 38past participle - n. the form of the verb that is used with "be" in passive constructions 39prepositional phrase - n. a phrase that begins with a preposition and ends in a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase 40predicate - n. the part of a sentence that expresses what is said about the subject