PASSIVE

VOICE
ACTIVE VOICE
The subject of a sentence is the
person or thing we talk about.
When the subject does something,
we use ACTIVE VOICE
Subject Active
Active verb
verb (( it
it can
can be
be in
in diff.
diff. tenses)
tenses)
Subject (doer)
(doer)

E.g.: People sell good luck flowers.

Object (receiver)
PASSIVE VOICE
It is used when the subject is not the
doer of an action.
We put the receiver of an action as
the subject.
We put the doer of an action as the
object.
Subject
Subject (( receiver)
receiver) Passive
Passive verb
(It
(It can
verb
can be
be in
in diff.
diff. tenses)
tenses)
Object (Doer)

E.g.: Good luck flowers are sold by

people.
 Page 4

FORM
The passive is formed with the verb to be (in the
appropriate tense) + past participle (of the main verb)
The terrorist was arrested early this morning.
Toyota cars are made in Japan.

A new class representative will be chosen on

Monday.
NB These examples show that a passive sentence
can be in whatever tense you like. The tense of
the verb to be changes to give different tenses in
the passive.
 Page 5

LETS REVIEW THE VERB TO BE

The Present Simple Tense AM, IS, ARE

The Present Continuous Tense AM/IS/ARE BEING
The Present Perfect Tense HAVE BEEN, HAS BEEN
The Past Simple Tense WAS, WERE
The Past Continuous Tense WAS/WERE BEING
The Past Perfect Tense HAD BEEN
The Future Tense WILL BE
With modals CAN BE, WOULD BE, SHOULD BE,
MAY BE, MUST BE
 Page 6

DO THESE SENTENCES HAVE THE SAME MEANING?

Whats the difference?

 Page 7

USE
The passive is more common in written than
spoken English. It sounds formal and impersonal,
and for that reason is often used in:
reports of crimes or legal procedures He was
sentenced to two years in prison.
newspaper reports The match was postponed due to a
heavy fog.
scientific writing Three millilitres of water are added to
the mixture.
announcements Flight BA 302 to London is delayed by
two hours.
notices Customers are requested not to smoke.
 Page 8

USE
In everyday situations we use it when we do
not know or care who performs the action. In
other words, the passive is used when we are
more interested in what happens to a thing or
a person.
Nevertheless, it is not unusual to mention the
actual doer in a passive sentence. In that
case we put them at the end of the sentence
after the preposition by:
Great expectations was written by Charles Dickens.
Star wars was directed by George Lucas.
 WHY SHOULD WE USE PASSIVE
VOICE?
We dont know the subject of the action (doer)

That house was burnt down

We know the subject of the action but do not want to mention

it, for whatever the reason

The Ming vase was badly broken, Im sorry mum.

We are more interested in the action itself than in the doer.

Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming

HOW DO WE NORMALLY
CHANGE VERBS FROM ACTIVE
TO PASSIVE VOICE?
We normally need the auxiliary verb to be,
which we conjugate in the same tense as the
main verb in the active verb, followed by the main
verb in past participle.

Eg:
The woman bought a new car.
S V CD

WAS/WERE BOUGHT
 ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE
I DO IT IT IS DONE
I DID IT IT WAS DONE
I WILL DO IT IT WILL BE DONE
I WOULD DO IT IT WOULD BE DONE
I HAVE DONE IT IT HAS BEEN DONE
I HAD DONE IT IT HAD BEEN DONE
I WILL HAVE DONE IT IT WILL HAVE BEEN DONE
I WOULD HAVE DONE IT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE

Notice that if we count verbs, in passive voice there is always one

more verb than in active voice (the auxiliary to be), that is a
wonderful trick to know if we are conjugating the verb correctly, by
counting verbs
CONTINUOUS TENSES:
ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE
I AM DOING IT IT IS BEING DONE
I WAS DOING IT IT WAS BEING DONE
I WILL BE DOING IT IT WILL BE BEING DONE
I WOULD BE DOING IT IT WOULD BE BEING DONE
I HAVE BEEN DOING IT IT HAS BEEN BEING DONE
I HAD BEEN DOING IT IT HAD BEEN BEING DONE
I WILL HAVE BEEN DOING IT IT WILL HAVE BEEN BEING DONE
I WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING IT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BEING
DONE
*I AM GOING TO DO IT IT IS GOING TO BE DONE
WITH MODAL VERBS:
ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE
I CAN DO IT IT CAN BE DONE
I COULD DO IT IT COULD BE DONE
I MUST DO IT IT MUST BE DONE
I MAY DO IT IT MAY BE DONE
I MIGHT DO IT IT MIGHT BE DONE
I HAVE TO DO IT IT HAS TO BE DONE
I SHALL DO IT IT SHALL BE DONE
I SHOULD DO IT IT SHOULD BE DONE
I OUGHT TO DO IT IT OUGHT TO BE DONE
Example...

Mary designs a beautiful dress.

A beautiful dress is designed by Mary.

 Pay attention...

Mary designs a beautiful dress.

Simple Present

A beautiful dress is designed by Mary.

VERB TO BE MAIN VERB

in the in the
Simple Present Past Participle
 Try to complete the
sentence
The girl buys a new pair of shoes.

A new pair of shoes

____
is _______
bought
by the girl.
 Now lets try in the
Simple Past...
The boys bought coloured jeans.
Simple Past

Coloured jeans
were bought
______ __________ by
the boys.
VERB TO BE
in the
Simple Past
 THE PASSIVE VOICE
Simple Present & Simple Past
 THE PASSIVE VOICE
The Pronouns also
I... change ... by me.
You... ... by you.
She... Passive Agent
... by her.
He... ... by him.
It... ... by it.
We... ... by us.
You... ... by you.
They... ... by them.
Simple Present or Simple Past?
They visited the fashion show.
The fashion show _____
was __________
visited by
_________.
them
She reads fashion magazines every day.
Fashion magazines _____
are __________
read by
________
her every day..
Change into the Passive Voice...

1. The secretary writes a letter.

_________________________
2. They lost their keys.
_________________________
3. She drinks an orange juice every day.
_________________________
Change into the Passive Voice...

4. Peter made a chocolate cake.

_________________________
5. He took his car out of the garage.
_________________________
6. They cleaned their rooms.
_________________________
TYPES OF PASSIVE
VOICE:
DIRECT OBJECT
INDIRECT OBJECT
CAUSATIVE HAVE/GET
IMPERSONAL
PERSONAL
HAVE SOMEONE DO
GET SOMEONE TO DO
In this presentation we are only going to see the
first two types.
DIRECT OBJECT
For this passive voice we need a transitive verb,
therefore well also need a direct object.

My mother buys all the weekly supplies

S V CD

All the weekly supplies are bought by my mother

S V AGENT
INDIRECT OBJECT
For this passive voice we only need an intransitive
verb and an indirect object.

My brother has talked to my sister for hours

S V CD CC

My sister has been talked for hours by my mother

S V CC AGENT
 WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE ARE
BOTH OBJECTS IN THE SAME
IfSENTENCE?
you find a sentence with both direct and indirect
objects, then you can do both types of passive
voice, depending on what you want to empasize:

My brother has bought my sister a new toy

S V CI CD

A new toy has been bought for my sister by my

brother
S V CI
AGENT
My sister has been bought a new toy by my brother
*NOTE:

In any of these types of passive voice if the subject

in the active is:

people, somebody, a personal pronoun (he, she,

I, they, etc)

we tend to omit the agent of the sentence, that is

the doer of the action
TYPES OF PASSIVE
VOICE:
DIRECT OBJECT
INDIRECT OBJECT
CAUSATIVE HAVE/GET
IMPERSONAL
PERSONAL
HAVE SOMEONE DO
GET SOMEONE TO DO

In this presentation we are going to see the five

last types.
 CAUSATIVE HAVE/GET
For this passive voice, we change the auxiliary verb,
which can be either have or get (UK or US
English), that is, in this case, those auxiliaries will be
the ones we conjugate in the same tense as the verb
in the active voice.

They will bring me the newspaper

will have/ get

To transform a sentence using this passive voice, we
need both a direct and an indirect object:

They will bring me the newspaper

S V CI CD

I will have/ get the newspaper

brought
Note: we dont normally use agent here.
ci+have/get+cd+vb (past participle)
 IMPERSONAL PASSIVE
VOICE
For this passive voice we need to have two sentences
joined by that. The first sentence needs a mental
verb: say, think, believe, understand.

People think (that) she is very pretty

S1 S2
Since this passive voice is impersonal, we need an
impersonal subject: IT, and then, we will conjugate the
first verb into passive voice, that is the mental verb,
without changing anything from the second sentence:

It is thought that she is very pretty.

EXAMPLES:

Mary believed that I was It was believed that I was

American American
People have understood that he It has been understood that he
is silly is silly
They say
Note: We that
dontwe are
use a couple
agent here. It is said that we are a couple
 PERSONAL PASSIVE
ForVOICE
this passive voice we need to have two sentences
joined by that. The first sentence needs a mental
verb: say, think, believe, understand.

People think (that) Mary knows

French
S1 V1 S2 V2
CS

Mary is thought to know French

 GET SOMEONE TO DO
SOMETHING
To transform a sentence using this passive voice, we
need both a direct and an indirect object.

For this passive voice, we use GET as auxiliary verb,

which will be conjugated in the same tense as the verb
in the active voice.
They will bring me the newspaper
S V CI CD

I will get them to bring me the newspaper

ci+get+sj+vb (infinitive with to)
 S2+V1 (PASS VOICE)+V2 (INF TO)+
CS

PRESENTS PASTS TO HAVE+VB

FUTURES TO+V PERFECT (pp)
CONDITIONALS B TENSES
EXAMPLES:
Mary believed that I was
American
People have understood that he
is silly
They say that we are a couple
We think you wont arrive on
Note:
time We dont use agent here.
I was believed to have been
American
He has been understood to be
silly
We are said to be a couple
You are thought not to arrive
on time
 HAVE SOMEONE DO
SOMETHING
To transform a sentence using this passive voice, we
need both a direct and an indirect object.

For this passive voice, we use HAVE as auxiliary verb,

which will be conjugated in the same tense as the verb
in the active voice.
They will bring me the newspaper
S V CI CD

I will have them bring me the newspaper

ci+have+sj+vb (infinitive without to)