How to form the passive

1. What is the action (Verb)? 2. Who/What is doing the action (Subject)? 3. What is the Subject doing the action to (Object)? eats Tim a pie

Subject T i m
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Verb e a t s

Object a p i e
A pie Simple Present is eaten is eaten by Tim

Take the object and make it the Subject What tense or form is the verb in? Put to be in this tense. What is the past participle of the verb? Put these two together If you want, you can add the Agent (who is doing the action)

Subject Active T i m Subject p i e

Verb e a t s

Object p i e Agent T i m )

Passive A

i s

Verb e a t e n

( b y

When do we use the passive?

1. When we dont know who the agent is. Eg: My bag was stolen. (I dont know who stole it.) This TV was made in China. (I dont know who made it.) 2. When the agent is not important or less important than the object. Eg: My computer has been fixed. (I dont care who fixed it. I care about the computer) My tooth was pulled out by a local dentist. (My tooth is more important to me than the dentist) 3. When its obvious who the agent is. Eg: The criminal was arrested. (Who arrested the criminal? The police, obviously.)

An example

What happened? Active Someone cut the tree down

Passive The tree was cut down.

1. Circle the correct form (active or passive) 1. Derek posted /was posted his letter to the university today. 2. We did a lot of work for the school but we didnt pay / werent paid. 3. My friend Douglas speaks / is spoken several languages. 4. The letter g doesnt pronounce / isnt pronounced in the word night. 5. The story of Christmas tell/is told every year. 6. My dad invested / was invested his money in Microsoft. Exercise 1. Change these sentences from active to passive, as in the examples. Examples: The girl is carrying three books. Three books are being carried by the girl. He has to clean the kitchen. The kitchen has to be cleaned by him. 1. Bill broke the window. 2. Ned takes a pill every day. 3. I will fix the car. 4. They were visiting Paul. 5. This shop sells clothes. 6. They are watching the movie. 7. Matthew lost the keys yesterday. 8. He has eaten the pizza. 9. We should close the door.