passive continuous sentences

[Prodigy]

peace

i would be very glad if im helped to understand what passive continous is?

what is the difference if i write " i coudlnt talk to you as my cell phone was being serviced" and "i couldnt talk to you because my cell phone was in service"

thank you

[Yankee]

Hi Prodigy

Just as verbs can be used in simple tenses and continuous tenses in the active voice, they can also be used in simple and continuous tenses in the passive voice.

Here are some examples:

1. They sell Dell PCs here. --> simple present tense, active voice
2. Dell PCs are sold here. --> simple present tense, passive voice

3. Someone is singing a beautiful song. --> present continuous tense, active voice
4. A beautiful song is being sung. --> present continuous tense, passive voice

5. Someone was singing a beautiful song. --> past continuous tense, active voice
6. A beautiful song was being sung. --> past continuous tense, passive voice

To build the passive, you need a form of the verb 'be' and the past participle of the verb. To build a passive past continuous form of the verb 'sing' (as in sentence 6 above), you need the past continuous form of the verb 'be' plus the past participle of 'sing'.

" I coudln't talk to you because my cell phone was being serviced."
This sentence is the past continuous passive of the verb 'service'.
It means the same thing as this past continuous active sentence:
I couldn't talk to you because someone was servicing (was repairing) my phone.

"I couldn't talk to you because my cell phone was in service."
This sentence doesn't make much sense to me. If a phone is "in service" that means it works or is functional. In other words, it is possible to use the phone.

[Prodigy]

peace yankee

im very thankful to you for helping me out with it, now could you help me a little bit more on english pronunciation, i admit that i can speak english with both the american and british accent but the problem with me is i make mistake while pronouncing some words. for instance: diversification- i pronounce as die-versifi-cation while it should be d-versifi-cation.

please enlighten me

[Harry Smiith]

[Yankee]

Hi Harry

There is quite a lot of difference between the two sentences.

First, "was being serviced" is roughly the opposite of "was in service".

Second, if your comment was intended only as a comment about the difference between "as" and "because", keep in mind that it is possible to interpret "as" two different ways in the first sentence:
- while/during the time that
- because

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Hi Prodigy

I'm not sure how to interpret your description of the way you pronounce the word "diversification", but it seems that you are telling me that your pronunciation of this word is closer to the American pronunciation than to the British pronunciation. Using the American pronunciation is not a problem.
.

[Harry Smiith]

[Lost_Soul]

Hi, Harry Smiith

Well, if something is in service, it works
If something is being servised it is temporary unavailable (due to the "service operations")

See?

PS: I think your russian is more harm than good to you here. In russian you can say "В сервисе" with the meaning opposite to in service

[Yankee]

Hi Harry

"Was being serviced" basically means "was being repaired/maintained".
"Was in service" can often be reworded as "was being used" (in the sense of "was functional and provided a service").

I googled "was in service" and found these examples for you:

- Airtime is calculated using data from those months in which the telephone was in service for the full month. (i.e. was functional/was in use/was usable)

- Neither telephone was in service (i.e. neither telephone worked)

- The third mast was transformed into an AM transmitter and was in service until 1957. (i.e. was in use and functional)

- It was in service for almost twenty years. (i.e. It was functional and used for almost 20 years.)

- The car was in service in the Pyr?n?es C?te d’Argent Express for one year.

- This truck was in service as a reserve ladder truck until replaced in 1990.

This is why I wrote in my first post that Prodigy's second sentence didn't make much sense to me. It's not logical to say that "The reason I couldn't phone you is that the phone was functional." That doesn't make sense.
.

[Harry Smiith]

[Alan]

Hi,

Perhaps you could put the two contenders in one sentence: The bus was not in service because it was being serviced.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Indirect Speech

[Yankee]

Good one, Alan.

And here's one more try:

- A bus that is being serviced cannot be used for its intended purpose.

- A bus that is in service can be used for its intended purpose.

Trust me, Harry. The meanings are very different. They are so different that they might be seen as opposites -- as I've attempted to illustrate above.
.

[Harry Smiith]

[Yankee]

[Harry Smiith]

[Lost_Soul]