MODULE VII

TOPICS: The passive

FUNCTIONS:

Describe places, give and ask for information

about products that require a process: music, cars,
books, etc.. and express processes and changes.

AUTOR: MIGUEL BONETT

Todos Los Derechos Reservados

Centro de Ambientes Virtuales
Universidad Autónoma del Caribe CopyRight ©
Curso 2011
 ÍNDICE

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 3
1. THE PASSIVE....................................................................................................................... 4
BIBLIOGRAFÍA ................................................................................................................................. 8

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 INTRODUCTION

The objective for this module 7 is for the students to know how to agreeing and
disagreeing and also how to make suggestion and reach a decision. Make
assumptions and deductions. Students have to know how to describe pictures,
asking about or recommending places, also giving reasons or examples.
Furthermore how to express similarities and differences.

Make assumptions/deductions
Make suggestions/agree - disagree
Reach a decision
Asking about/recommending places
Giving reasons/examples
Expressing similarities/differences
Describe pictures
Concern

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 UNIDAD 3

1. THE PASSIVE

We form the passive with the verb to be in the appropriate tense and the of the
main verb.

We use the passive:

When the person or people who do the action are unknown, unimportant or
obvious from the context. For example:

Loren’s mobile phone was stolen. (We don’t know who stole it.)

The thief has been arrested. (It’s obvious that the police arrested him.)

When the action itself is more important than the person/people who do it, as in
news headlines, newspaper articles, formal notices, advertisements,
instructions, processes, etc. for example:

The opening ceremony will be held on May 19th.

When we want to avoid taking responsibility for an action, or when we refer to an

unpleasant event and we do not want to say who or what is to blame. For
example:

The valuable paintings were destroyed.

Changing from the active into the passive:

The object of the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive sentence

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 The active verb remains in the same tense but changes into a passive form
The subject of the active sentence becomes the agent, and is either introduced
with the preposition by or is omitted.

Subject Verb Object

ACTIVE The doctor was cleaning the wound.

Subject Verb Agent

PASSIVE The wound was being cleaned by the doctor.

Only transitive verbs (verbs which take an object) can be changed into the
passive. For example:
Active: The nanny sings to the baby. (intransitive verb)

No passive form: The baby is sung to by the nanny.

Note: Some transitive verbs (have, exist, seem, fit, suit, resemble, lack, etc)
cannot be changed into the passive. For example:

The city has a new town hall. (NOT: A new town hall is had by the city)

We can use the verb to get instead of the verb to be in everyday speech when
we talk about things that happen by accident or unexpectedly. For example:

He got robbed when he was going to work. (instead of He was robbed…)

By + the agent is used to say who or what carries out an action. With +
instrument/material/ingredient is used to say what the agent used. For
example:

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The cake was made by Terry. It was made with wild strawberries.

The agent can be omitted when the subject is they, he, someone/somebody,
people, one, etc. for example:

Someone has closed the window. The window has been closed.

The agent is not omitted when it is a specific or important person, or when it is

essential to the meaning of the sentence. For example:

The Cathedral was built by Antonio Gaudi.

With verbs which can take two objects, such as bring, tell, send, teach,
promise, buy, sell, read, offer, give, lend, etc, we can form two different
passive sentences. For example:

Benny gave mom a surprise. (active)

Mom was given a surprise by Benny. (passive, more usual)

A surprise was given to mom by Benny. (passive, less usual)

If in an active sentence a preposition follows a verb, then in the passive it is

placed immediately after the verb. For example:

A ball hit John on the head. John was hit on the head by a ball.

The verbs hear, help, see and make are followed by the bare infinitive in the
active and by the to-infinitive in the passive. For example.

She helped me finish my job. I was helped to finish my job.

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 Let becomes be allowed to in the passive. For example:

The teacher let the students use a calculator. The students were allowed
to use a calculator.

To ask questions in the passive, we follow the same rules as for statements,
keeping in mind that the verb is in the interrogative form. For example:

Have they sent the parcel yet? Has the parcel been sent (by them) yet?

When we want to find out who or what performed an action, the passive
question form is Who/What … by?. For example:

Who was the bridge built by?

The verbs believe, expect, feel, hope, know, report, say, think, etc are used
in the following passive patterns in personal and impersonal constructions. For
example:

They expect he will win the elections.

Subject (person) + passive verb + to-infinitive

He is expected to win the elections. (personal construction)

It + passive verb + that-clause

It is expected that he will win the elections. (impersonal construction)

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 BIBLIOGRAFÍA

Evans, Virginia – Dooley Jenny (2009). Forum 2. Express Publishing.