PASSIVE VOICE

PASSIVE VOICE

LESSON PLAN

1. What is the passive voice?

2. The grammatical structure of passive voice

3. When to use the passive voice?
4. How could we easily transform the ‘active’ to ‘passive’ ?
WHAT IS THE PASSIVE VOICE?

ACTIVE

PASSIVE

Active : Everybody loves chocolate.

Passive : chocolate is loved by everybody.

Active : The lifeguard saved a man.

Passive : A man was saved by the lifeguard.

Active : Decorators are painting my house.

Passive : My house is being painted by decorators.

 THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE

Passive : S (direct object in active) BE +

past participle (verb 3)

BE
am / are / is Present simple Passive : Chocolate is loved by everybody.
was / were Past simple
Passive : A man was saved by the lifeguard.
been Perfect tenses
being Continuous tense
Passive : My house is being painted by decorators.

COMPARISON
#1 This bottle of ketchup has already been opened.
#2 I have been tired for weeks.
Which sentence is passive?
 WHY DO WE USE THE PASSIVE ?

1. When the action is more important or interesting than the person who does the action.
$1.000.000 were donated to the children’s hospital.
Who donated the money?

Active : The Prime Minister donated $ 1.000.000

2. The person who does the action is not known, or not important.
This outstanding bridge was built in 1732.
Who built the bridge? Not important / I don’t know
Active : John Taylor Thomas built this bridge in 1732.
 WHY DO WE USE THE PASSIVE ?

3. The person doing the action is obvious.

The crook was arrested last night!
Who arrested Bill ?
Active : The police arrested the crook.

4. The object can’t do the action itself.

100 chocolate cakes were sold on Sunday.
Can a cake sell itself ?

If we want to say WHO does the action Use an AGENT BY + person

Optional (not necessary)

$1.000.000 were donated to the children’s hospital. (by the Prime Minister).
This beautiful bridge was built in 1732. (by John Taylor Thomas)
100 chocolate cakes were sold on Sunday. (by Holland Bakery)
 TRANSFORMING ACTIVE TO PASSIVE

LIST OF TENSES
Present simple am / is / are + past participle (V3)
Present continuous am / is / are being + past participle (V3)
Present perfect have / has been + past participle (V3)
Present perfect continuous uncommon passive structure
Past Simple was / were + past participle (V3)
Past Continuous was / were being + past participle (V3)
Past Perfect had been + past participle (V3)
Past perfect continuous uncommon passive structure
Be going to (future form) be + going to be + past participle (v3)
Future continuous uncommon passive structure
Future perfect will have been + past participle (v3)
Future perfect continuous uncommon passive structure (v3)
 SIX STEPS FOR TRANSFORMING ACTIVE TO PASSIVE

Step 1 : Identify the subject, the verb and the object of the active sentence.
Step 2 : Move the object to become the new subject of our sentence.
Step 3 : Check the active sentence. What is the verb tense in the active sentence?
Step 4 : Conjugate the verb be so that it's in the same tense as the main verb in the active sentence.
Step 5 : Add the past participle of the main verb after be.
Step 6 : We need to decide what to do with the subject of your active sentence.

The children ate the cake. Apple sells thousands of iPhones every day. The salesman will sell this car.

Her husband had left out the washing in the rain. Volunteers saved many people’s lives.
 PRESENT SIMPLE OR PAST SIMPLE

PRESENT SIMPLE PAST SIMPLE

Expresses daily habits or usual activities. To talk about an activity or situation that began and
Ex.: Ann takes a shower every day. ended at a particular time in the past .

Events or situations that exist always, usually,

Or habitually in the past, present, and future (for - Mary walked downtown yesterday.
Permanent situations). - I slept for eight hours last night.

Ex.: - I usually read the newspaper in the morning. Time expressions : yesterday, last night,
- The earth revolves around the sun. two days ago, in 1999.
- A square has four equal side.

Time expressions : every morning / day / week/

year, on Monday, in the morning, in January, in the
summer, at 8.00 / night / the weekend,
always, usually, often, sometimes, never.