So, I got that 10 Green Bottles song stuck in my head now.

[conuly]

I'm not complaining, it's not too annoying. But it's raised a question.

If I say "there are # green bottles hanging on the wall", the word "are" comes before the phrase "green bottles". But if I say "# green bottles are hanging on the wall" the word "are" has to come after the phrase "green bottles".

If I say "there # green bottles are hanging on the wall", that is a different meaning from either of the above sentences. And "are # green bottles hanging on the wall" isn't even an option.

Why?

Comments

[joeno.livejournal.com]

Passive vs active voice, with the strange coincidence that the English grammar happens to use 'to be' in both these cases?

I'm not too sure on the exact English terms used for various grammar things, so you may need to adjust for that a bit.

The subject is actually different in both sentences. In the first, it is 'there', with an object of 'green bottles'. In the second sentence, the subject is 'green bottles', without an object.

Compare it to these two simple sentences:
"A man stands near the wall."
"There is a man standing near the wall."

It's the same basic structure, but without that pesky 'are' in both sentences.

There is a certain name for making a sentence passive this way, but I can't remember it right now.

The reason people get confused is because you learn to mentally interpret both sentences almost the same way.

.. I hope that all makes sense. It's not easy to translate these things when you're used to Dutch, and it's been a while since I really had to think this much about these things. But I know I had a few classes on this during Dutch at school, and it applies in the same way to English as well.

[conuly]

*blinks*

I know what you're saying, but that's not the passive. Passive would be "ten green bottles were hung on the wall" or "a wall is being stood on by a man".