What is the meanings of below sentences?
1) Five people were killed in the earthquake.
2) Five people had been killed in the earthquake.
Are above sentence in passive voice?
If yes, then who is the doer I mean earthquake?
Also if earthquake is the doer then why in the earthquake and not by the earthquake?
Best Answer
We don't need the preposition "by" in a passive construction.
Tens of thousands were killed during the civil war.
The tense differences, were killed, had been killed, express a time relationship: the past perfect refers to a time that is earlier than another time also in the past:
Tens of thousands were killed during the civil war.
Tens of thousands had been killed before peace talks began.