March 19, 2020

Notes English Grammar lesson - Passive voice

sentences in the past tense

Passive Voice- Past Tense

The subject becomes an object, the object becomes a subject, the verb goes in the past
participle form.

For example

❑ The man cut down the tree.

Sub Verb Object D

✓ To change this sentence to the grammatical form that we are seeing, we have to ask
ourselves, who is doing the action? Who is the subject?
✓ Then what is the action?
✓ And finally, who is cutting?

We change quickly, and we make the object a subject, we change the verb to the past
participle form, if you want to add more emphasis you add "by" and the subject turns it into
an object, also to keep it in the past tense you add a supporting verb like "was" to identify
that you are in the past simple tense.

❑ The tree was cut down by man.

Sub support Verb in Object D
verb past
participle

❑ The boys were helping the wounded man.

Sub Past Object D
continuous

we put the wounded man as a subject, the main verb goes in the past participle, in this
sentence we use a continuous verb tense that ends in "ing" and auxiliary or support verbs
are added and since it is in "ing", adding "being ", we add" by "and the boys become the
object.

❑ The wounded man was being helped by the boys.

Sub Object D
support Verb in
verb past
participle

Fernanda Gpe Ramírez Martínez

 ❑ He had given me a bouquet.
Sub Verb Object D
Me become I, this is a perfect past tense the verb is already in "given" so you only add an
auxiliary or support verb in this case "had been", we put "as bouquet" as it is, we add "by"
and he becomes an object.

❑ I had been given a bouquet by him

Sub support
verb
Verb in Object D
past
participle
Passive Voice- Past Tense

To ask questions in the past tense

❑ Who broke the jar?

Sub Verb Object D
When you put "who" in the passive voice, it is always better to start the question with "by
whom", you add the auxiliary "was" because it is the past tense, you add the object and you
put the verb in the past participle.

❑ By whom was the jar broken?

❑ Why were you doing the work?

Sub Verb Object D
you write "why", "the work" is a noun that is uncountable so you use a singular support verb,
so you write "was the work", we have a verb that ends in "ing", so we write "beeing done"
Finally we add "by" and "you".

❑ Why was the work being done by you?

➢ When rewriting active sentences in passive voice in past tense, note the following:
✓ the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
✓ the finite form of the verb is changed (was + past participle).
✓ the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is
dropped).

Example:
Sub Verb Object D
Shakespeare wrote hamlet in 1603.

if we change this sentence to a passive voice in the past tense

Hamlet was written by Shakespeare in 1603.

Sub Verb Verb in
preposition
(to be) past
past participle Fernanda Gpe Ramírez Martínez
form