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Passive Voice This house was built in 1930. Was built is passive. Compare active and passive. Somebody built this house (object) in 1930. (active) This house (subject) was built in 1930. (passive) We use an active verb to say what the subject does: · My grandfather was a builder. He built this house in 1930. · It’s a big company. It employs two hundred people. We use a passive verb to say what happens to the subject: · This house is quite old. It was built in 1930. · Two hundred people are employed by the company. When we use the passive, who or what causes the action is often unknown or unimportant: · A lot of money was stolen in the robbery. (somebody stole it, but we don’t know who) · Are the animals treated well? (it’s unimportant who treat them) If we want to say who does or what causes the action, we use by: · This picture was painted by a girl in my class. · This house was built by my grandfather. We can use the passive to talk about historic events: · The electric light bulb was invented in 1878. · Printing was invented in China. And also to talk about technical and scientifically process: · When the tea leaves have been picked, they’re left in special rooms to dry. 1. We do the passive of the simple present by using the simple present of the verb To Be and the past participle of the main verb.
E.g. Somebody cleans this room every day. – Active Object E.g. This room is cleaned every day. - Passive
Subject Present Simple Past Participle of the main verb
E.g. How is this word pronounced? Simple Present Past Participle
E.g. I am not often invited to parties. Simple Present Past Participle 2. To do the passive of the Simple Past, we use the Simple Past of the verb To Be and the past participle of the main verb. E.g. Somebody cleaned this room yesterday. – Active
Object E.g. This room was cleaned yesterday. – Passive
Subject Past Simple Past Participle
E.g. We were woken up by a loud noise during the night.
Simple Past Past Participle
E.g. How much money was stolen?
Simple Past Past Participle 3. To form the passive of the present continuous, we put the verb To Be in present continuous and the main verb in past participle: E.g. Somebody is playing basketball at the court. - Active
Present Continuous E.g. Basketball is being played at the court. – Passive
Present Continuous Past Participle
E.g. The living room is being cleaned right now.
Present Continuous Past Participle 4. To form the passive of the Past Continuous, we put the verb To Be in Past Continuous and the main verb in past participle.
E.g. Many people were eating the dinner when we arrived. – Active Past Continuous Past Participle E.g. The dinner was being eaten when we arrived. – Passive Past Continuous Past Participle Note: To form the Passive Voice, we use the verb in an appropriate tense and the Past Participle of the main verb. 5. Passive with Present Perfect Simple: E.g. Have you ever been bitten by a dog. E.g. We haven’t been invited to Jack’s party. 6. Passive with Past Perfect Simple Sophie: Our house had been broken into when we got back from the weekend. Tony: Had anything been stolen? Sophie: Luckily my gold hadn’t been touched. Study the following active and passive forms: 1. After will, can, must, going to, want to, etc... Active: do, clean, see, etc... E.g. Somebody will clean the room later. Passive: be done, cleaned, seen, etc... E.g. The situation is serious. Something must be done before it’s too late. E.g. The room will be cleaned later. E.g. A new supermarket is going to be built next year.
2. After should have, might have, would have, seen to have, etc... Active: done, cleaned, seen, etc... E.g. Somebody should have cleaned the room. Passive: been done, cleaned, seen, etc... E.g. There were some problems at first, but they seem to have been solved. E.g. The room should have been cleaned. E.g. I haven’t received the letter yet. It might have been sent to the wrong address.
I was born... E.g. Where were you born? (not where are you born?) E.g. I was born in Senegal. Simple Past We say I was born (not I am born). E.g. How many babies are born every year? Simple Present I don’t like being... Compare: Active: I don’t like people telling me what to do. Passive: I don’t like being told what to do. E.g. I remember being given a toy drum on my seventh birthday. (= I remember somebody giving me a toy drum). E.g. Mr Dylan hates being kept waiting. (= he hates people keeping him waiting) E.g. We managed to climb over the roof without being seen. ( = without anybody seeing us) Get Sometimes you can use get instead of be in the passive: E.g. There was a fight at the party, but nobody got hurt. ( = nobody was hurt) E.g. I’m surprised Ann didn’t get offered the job. ( = Ann wasn’t offered the job) You can use get to say that something happens to somebody or something, especially if this is unplanned or unexpected: E.g. Our dog got run over by a car. You can use get only when things happen or change. For example, you can’t use get in these sentences: · Joanna is liked by everybody. ( not gets liked – this is not a “happening”). · He was a mysterious man. Nothing was known about him. ( not go known) Get is mainly used in informal spoken English, while be is used in all situations. Some verbs can have two objects – for example, give: We gave the police the information. ( = we gave the information to the police) Object 1 object 2 So it’s possible to make two passive sentences: The police were given the information or The information was given to the police. Other verbs that can have two objects are: ask, offer, pay, show, teach, tell. When we use these verbs in the passive, most often we begin with the person: · I was offered the job, but I refused it. ( = they offered me the job) · You’ll be given plenty of time to decide. ( we’ll give you plenty of time) · Have you been shown the new machine ? ( = has anybody shown you...?) · The men were paid £150 to do the work. ( somebody paid the men £150)
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