Tahri Mohamed University – Bechar

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of Languages
Dr. Hafid Benketaf
1st Year MLIC – Advanced Grammar

Passive Voice

The passive voice can be used without referring to the agent of an action. It may
therefore be used when the agent is unknown or unimportant, or the speaker does
not wish to mention the agent. In other words, there are three reasons for the use of
passive sentences:
1. When the subject or the doer of the action in anonymous. E.g.: My car was
stolen. The speaker does not know the thief.
2. When the subject is evident and does not need to be introduced. E.g.: The thief
was arrested yesterday. It is evident that the police arrested the thief, so there
is no need to mention it.
3. When the speaker or writer wants to put the stress on the object of the
sentence. Consider the following sentences where the topic sentence whether
written in active or passive is going to determine the topic of the whole
paragraph or text.
- An iceberg sunk the titanic. (Active sentence) The topic of the sentence is
about icebergs and not the Titanic.
- The titanic was sunk by an iceberg. (Passive sentence) the topic of the
sentence is about the Titanic.
4. However, the passive is often connected with the positioning of the by-phrase
at the end of the clause, which may in fact serve to place emphasis on the
agent, since it is natural for information being emphasized to come at the end:
The patient was murdered by his own doctor! In this sentence the emphasis is
on the doctor whose job is to save people and not to murderer them.
5. The passive may be used because the noun phrase denoting the agent is a long
one (containing many modifiers). Therefore, it is convenient to place such
noun phrases at the end of a clause: The cure to the disease was achieved by
Burlingame, Swhartz, and Evans, two researchers in the university's
genetic engineering lab.
It is to be understood that the tense does not change from active to passive, only
its from that undergoes certain construction changes. The following is a table in
which is listed the verb form changes that must respected when transforming a
sentence to the passive voice. The following table shows the verb transformation
from active to passive.

1
 Tense Passive Voice Examples
Present Simple Am I am disturbed by the noise
Is + past participle He is often taken for his brother
are The tests are undertaken by two labs.
Present Am I am being told to update my anti-virus.
Continuous Is + being + past participle She is being bullied by her boss at work.
are The messages are being processed by experts.
Present Perfect Has The bill has been paid by Mohamed.
Have + been + past participle The fugitives have been caught.
Wolves have been seen in this forest.
Past Simple Was I was surprised by their hospitality.
Were + past participle We were given the permission to leave.
Past Continuous Was The plane was being checked before every flight.
Were + being + past participle These computers were being used by different
students
Past Perfect Had + been + past participle The breakout had been planned carefully.
These fields had been mined before 1944.
Modal Verbs Modal verbs + be + past participle The assignments must be submitted tomorrow.
Poe’s short stories can be found at the library.
Next week, a meeting will be held by the teachers.

Exercise 1: Choose the passive sentence that expresses the same idea in the active sentence.

1. The cat killed the mouse.

a) The mouse was killed by the cat.
b) The mouse killed by the cat.
c) The mouse has killed by the cat.
2. The man is cutting down the tree.
a) The tree cut down the man.
b) The tree is being cut down by the man.
c) The tree has cut down by the man.
3. Columbus discovered America.
a) America has discovered Columbus.
b) America was discovered by Columbus.
c) America had discovered by Columbus.
4. The teacher should praise the students.
a) The students praised by the teacher.
b) The students had praised by the teacher.
c) The students should be praised by the teacher.
5. The dog bit the man.
a) The man was bitten by the dog.
b) The man was bit the dog.
c) The man had been bitten by the dog.
7. The boys were flying kites.
a) Kites were flied by the boys.
b) Kites were being flown by the boys.
c) Kites were flown by the boys.

2
 (Send your answers via the teacher’s email benguetafabdelhafid@gmail.com)

Name: ................................................................

Activity Two: Put the following into the passive voice. The agent should not be mentioned except in
numbers 10 and 27.

1. Previous climbers had cut steps in the ice.

2. Somebody had cleaned my shoes and brushed my suit.

3. We use this room only on special occasions.

4. You must not hammer nails into the walls without permission.

5. In some districts farmers use pigs to find truffles.

6. Someone switched on a light and opened the door.

7. Somebody had slashed the picture with a knife.

8. They are pulling down the old theatre.

9. Why didn't they mend the roof before it fell in?

10. The mob broke all the shop windows in recent riots.

11. The librarian said that they were starting a new system because people were not returning books.

12. The police asked each of us about his movements on the night of the crime.

13. Someone will serve refreshments.

14. People must not leave bicycles in the hall.

3
15. Members may keep books for three weeks. After that they must return them.

16. The burglars had cut an enormous hole in the steel door.

17. I've bought a harp. They are delivering it this afternoon. (Do not change the first sentence.)

18. Someone has already told him to report for duty at six.

19. They rang the church bells as a flood warning.

20. No one can do anything unless someone gives us more information.

21. People are spending far more money on food now than they spent ten years ago.

22. The organizers will exhibit the paintings till the end of the month.

23. They will say nothing more about the matter if someone returns the stolen car.

24. It is high time someone told him to stop behaving like a child.

25. A thief stole my dog and brought him back only when I offered £20 reward for him.

26. The judge gave him two weeks in which to pay the fine.

27. The Chinese make these artificial flowers of silk.