15.5 Grammar in Use

A biography of past achievements naturally uses past tenses, the passive voice (for honours and discoveries), and relative clauses (to add information about people and things).

1. Past tenses

A life story is told mainly in the past. Use the simple past for completed events and the past perfect for something that happened earlier still.

  • Simple past: Bibha studied cosmic rays.
  • Past perfect: By the time she joined TIFR, she had completed her PhD abroad.

Practice. Choose the correct form:

  1. She (returned / had returned) to India in 1949.
  2. Before she joined TIFR, she (worked / had worked) under Patrick Blackett.
  1. returned   2. had worked

2. The passive voice

In a biography, honours and discoveries are often described in the passive voice, where the focus is on the action or the receiver, not the doer.

  • Active: Schrödinger nominated her for a Nobel Prize.
  • Passive: She was nominated for a Nobel Prize (by Schrödinger).
  • Active: Bhabha selected her for TIFR.
  • Passive: She was selected for TIFR.

Practice. Make passive: “Homi Bhabha recognised her talent.”

Her talent was recognised (by Homi Bhabha).

3. Relative clauses

A relative clause gives extra information about a noun, using who (people), which (things), that, whose, or where.

  • Bibha Chowdhuri, who studied cosmic rays, became famous.
  • She joined TIFR, which was founded by Homi Bhabha.
  • She worked under Blackett, whose guidance shaped her research.

A non-defining relative clause (extra, not essential) is set off with commas, as above; a defining one (essential) is not: The scientist who discovered this was Bibha.

Quick check Use who for people, which for things, whose for possession, and where for places. Add commas when the clause gives extra (non-essential) information.

Practice. Join with a relative clause: Bibha was a physicist. She studied cosmic rays.

Bibha was a physicist who studied cosmic rays.