Passive voice: (to be+ past participle) T.

KHATIB Mohammed

1. Read the following dialogue between Jane and Philip and answer the questions below.
Jane: Hi Philip! Tell me, do you have any idea about who invented the telephone?
Philip: Yes, the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell and some other scientists working with him.
Jane: Well, it is a great invention. It is used by millions of people worldwide. And what about the Internet?
Philip: The Interned was invented by English computer scientist Tim-Berners-Lee in 1989.
Jane: thats very interesting!
A. Who invented the telephone? ......................................................................................................................................
B. How many people use the telephone today? ................................................................................................................
C. Who invented the Internet? ..
2. Complete the table following the example:

Active voice Passive voice

Sentence Rule
Adam writes poems. (Simple present= V/V+ s/es) Poems ... .....
Adam wrote poems. (Simple past) Poems.... .....
Adam is writing poems. (Present Continuous) Poems.... ....
Adam was writing a poem at night. (Past Conti) A poem.......... ....
Adam has written many poems. (Present Perfect) Many poems.................. .....
Adam had written two poems before he slept. (Past Two poems.... ..
Perfect) .. .
Adam will/ going to write a nice poem at night. A nice poem ..... .
(Simple Future) . .
Adam will have written a poem by next week. A poem .. .
(Future Perfect) . .
Adam must switch off his mobile phone in the classroom. His mobile phone....................... ..
(Modals: can, will, may, should, etc) . .

Form : These pronouns CHANGE in passive voice.

Active voice : subject+ verb+ object Subject pronouns Object pronouns
Passive voice: object+ to be + pp + (by+agent) I respect you You respect me.
He respects me I respect him.
Use: Passive voice is used when the agent (doer) of the action is She respects me I respect her.
unknown or unimportant. We respect our father. Our father respects us.
The Titanic was built in 1912. (Who built it? (We dont know They respect me. I respect them
exactly). You respect me. I respect you.(No change)
It (the cat) bit John. John hit it. (No change)
1. Rewrite the following sentences as suggested (Passive voice):
1. In this hotel, they serve dinner at 8 pm. In this hotel, dinner......
2. John loves them. ............
3. Ahmed Sefrioui wrote La boite Merveilles. La boite Merveilles .....
4. We didnt give him our photos. Our photos...
5. The teacher is explaining the lesson. The lesson....
6. The students are doing the exercises. The exercises .
7. They were playing football yesterday at 4 pm. Football.......
8. John was playing video games. Video games ....
9. Nawal has just bought new clothes. New clothes...
10. Nawal and Omar have read a novel this month. A novel...
11. They had eaten lunch before they went home. Lunch.
12. They will tell me the truth. The truth .
13. People should give women more importance. More importance..
14. We must respect women rights. Women rights .
15. Sara will have taken the test by next Friday. The test
16. Parents always give their children money. Their children.
[Other verbs: tell-offer- send, show, etc] Money....
17. Have the police found the body? ...
18. Did they catch the thief? ...
2. Do the exercises on page 55 in your textbook (Gateway to English).