While I was talking to one of my friends, he changed a sentence which used the future continuous tense into one using the passive voice.
When I asked him about this, he showed me a picture from a BBC English broadcast demonstrating the same thing:
I will be playing cricket.
Cricket will be being played by me.
Is my friend correct that this is acceptable English?
Best Answer
The continuous form is used to state or ask what was, is or will be happening at a given moment. So, if you call your friend and ask: What are you doing? she may answer: I'm playing cricket (for example, she is standing on the boundary with her phone in her pocket when you call).
If you tell your friend that you intend to call her around 7pm tomorrow, she may reply: Sorry, but I'll be playing cricket. In other words, around the time that you plan to phone, she will be on the cricket field and unable to take your call. (The simple future I will play cricket is not possible in this context.)
In the passive form, the object is made the subject or topic of the sentence. So in a context where sports are the subject of discussion, the passive is just about conceivable.
But as Parrott in Grammar for English Teachers (p336) states:
Perhaps you could ask your friend why he or she changed your perfectly usual statement into one that would be perceived by native speakers as extremely odd. It would also be useful to link to the BBC English page referred to in the question.