somebody tell me why this is WRONG?

[captainmummy]

I was in the Garden Centre yesterday, and the till flashed up with 'you are served by Amy'

Why is this wrong? It should be 'you are being served by Amy' surely. Or 'Amy is serving you'? Why is the present tense 'served' not right? 'She served me' is right, but I suppose that is the past tense.

Aaargh I can't work it out!

[fryalot]

It does appear wrong, yes.

But...

I am serving
You are served
He/She is served
They are served

I suspect it is correct.

[nkf]

"Served" isn't the present tense. It's the past participle. To make sense, it needs an auxiliary verb.

[fryalot]

so it needs a being in there?

[nkf]

Yes.

[captainmummy]

So it is wrong? I thought it was, 'served' as a past tense, and 'you are' being the present tense.

[berolina]

'You are served by Amy' would make it habitual - you are [always] served by Amy. This would be technically correct if Amy was the only staff member ever to work the till! Here 'Amy is serving you' would make the most sense.

[captainmummy]

Maybe the till matrix didn't allow for a 'being' in there! Or maybe it's american? EIther way, it put me off the vegetable seedlings I'd just bought. That and the weather.

[Freckle]

You are served by Amy makes it sound like she's using you in a tennis match.

The verb to serve is an action verb, as in I serve, you serve, etc. When used in the passive sense it is an adjective, no? It sounds better in You are being served.

[AdEnuff]

Should it have been...You were served by Amy?

[LaComtesse]

Why do you need to know Amy's name anyway?

[clam]

Exactly, LaComtesse. This whole touchy-feely shopping nonsense hacks me off. Why does the electronic till have to state who's serving you? It's up there with "Have a nice day," when they clearly couldn't give a stuff.

[jessia]

Clam, it's so they know who to sack when you go to them with a complaint .
PS it is the passive voice, present continuous, at least it would be in the correct form "You are being served by Amy".

[mrsbabookaloo]

Hello,

"You are served by Amy" is a correct sentence in the passive voice, but it just isn't correct in this context because it is in the present simple.

Present simple is used for habitual actions ("I get up at 7am every day") rather than things that are happening now, ("I'm cooking dinner" - this is the present continuous). You are being served by Amy at the moment in the garden centre, but you aren't always served by her (she's not your servant!), and next time you might be served by Alice. So you need to use the present continuous - "You are being served".

Trying to regain my pedant stripes after the humiliation on grasp the mettle thread (and I STILL keep typing pendant instead of pedant)

[clam]

Yes, but at least you haven't put a typo in your thread title . And in Pedants' corner too!

[MsHighwater]

I learned about passive voice from the first word processor programme that I regularly used at work (clearly, since I had time to play with the grammar check I was not busy enough). I looked it up elsewhere and found that it was often employed to deliver bad news. Maybe they were trying to warn you about something?

[captainmummy]

And another thing - my ds3 came home from school today with a notebook from the Dept of Culture, Media and Aport, full of Q and A's, like 'I arrived to pick up my child and the Coach said that they had left with a friend'. 'My child has suddenly started saying they don't want to continue with the club'.

I do wonder how many children the questioner has, as 'they' don't seem to know.