Ecole Normale Supérieure First Year

Bouzaréah (ENSB) Grammar

English Department 2022-2023

The Passive

1-Forms
Complete the chart below

Active Verb Passive Verb Form Passive Verb

Present Simple Is/ are + past participle

Farmers grow cotton in Marshy
lands.

Present Progressive Is/ are + being +past

Authorities are taking further participle
measures to reduce gas emission in
the air.
Present Perfect
I am pleased to report that your visa Has/ Have + been +
application has been successful and past participle
that the immigration office has
returned your passport.

Past Simple
Mark Twain wrote ‘The Adventures of Was/ were + past
Tom Sawyer’ in 1876. participle

Past Progressive
The Montgomery police were Was/ were + being +
violating a constitutional right when past participle
they arrested a black woman on a
bus.

Past Perfect
The police had arrested anti-GMO Had + been +past
activists in India. participle

Future
We will feel the impact of GM Will + be + past
produce in the years to come. participle

Future Perfect
By the time our children are grown Will + have + been +
up, we will have taught them many past participle
lessons about civil rights.

Question
Did the farmers respect the norms Was/ were + past
for using fertilizers ? participle

Negative Is/ are + not + being +

Authorities are not taking serious past participle
measures to reduce pollution.
2- Uses
 To describe processes. The emphasis is on how something is produced, not who does
it.

Example : -Tea is grown on south-facing hillsides, and is harvested twice a year. It

is packed locally before being sent abroad.

 In formal writing, especially impersonal letters which focus on what happens, not
who does it.

Example : -The statement was sent to you at the end of January, and you were
asked to repay the loan by the middle of March. This was not done.

 To report unwelcome news or avoiding blame.

Examples:
-Taxes will be increased.
-All of my important e-mails were deleted.

 Used when the topic has already been mentioned.

Example : -Ethanol production is the latest hot topic for discussion. It is seen as a
possible solution to the century’s dependence on oil.

 N.B : In the passive form, the noun in the subject is the one that the speaker
emphasises. It is used when the receiver of the action is more important than the one
who did the action.
 The Passive (Practice)

Task 1 : Choose the correct verb form

1- The gallery has over 1000 paintings. These have been collected / have collected during the
last 100 years.
2- He was a collector as well as an artist. He collected / was collected nearly 1000 paintings.
3- The first pocket calculator weighed almost a kilogram. Its inventor invited / was invited to
trade fairs all over the world.
4- Jonathan is starting a new job next week. He is going to pay / is going to be paid much more
than before.
5- These beautiful clocks assemble / are assembled by hand.
6- Visitors are advising / are being advised to stay away from the city centre at night.
7- The five prisoners who escaped last week have caught / have been caught.
8- Welcome to the conference. After this meeting you’ll give / you’ll be given a welcome pack
with details of the talks and your accommodation.
9- I’m fed up with always asking / getting asked the same question by unfriendly journalists.

10-A young couple, whose parents were not allowed / didn’t allow them to see each other
because of an argument between the two families, have married in secret.

Task 2 : Rewrite the following radio reports in a more appropriate way using passive forms in which
the underlined word forms the subject of the clause. If ‘that’ is underlined, use a passive
construction with it or there.

1- People are encouraging the Prime Minister to sack the Environment Minister, Maggie Long,
after someone revealed that she had received payments from a major oil company. However,
in a statement today, the Prime Minister said : ‘ My advisors tell me that the company paid
Mrs. Long the money before she joined the government. I have no intention of dismissing
her.’
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2- A tropical storm has caused severe flooding in the city of Chittagong in south Bangladesh.
Although we understand that there are no casualties, the floods have made thousands of
people homeless, and people estimate the damage to property as running into millions of
dollars.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....
 3- Someone found a man injured on a Scottish hillside this morning. People think that he fell
while coming down a hillside in bad weather. Medical staff are treating him in hospital for leg
and head injuries. Someone reported him missing last night when he failed to return home
after a day’s walking.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Task 3 : Fill in the blanks in the statistics below about Coca-Cola with the verb in
brackets. Use the active or passive in a suitable tense.

500 million servings of Coca-Cola (consume) ……………………………………………………….worldwide every year.

94 per cent of the world’s population (recognise) …………………………………………....the Coca-Cola trademark.

109 is the number of years since Coca-Cola (invent)……………………………………………………………

148 litres (consume) …………………………………………………………... by average Brit every year.

The average American (drink) ……………………………………..………………. 275 litres every year.

195 is the number of countries where Coca-Cola (sell) ………………………………………………………….

Seven billion servings of Coca-Cola’s products (these include Cherry Coke, Lilt, Fanta, Sprite, TAB Clear,Five
Alive) (consume) ……………………………………………………….. in Britain last year.

The 40-foot Coca-Cola bottle in Times Square New York, (take) ………………………….…………………….…. Several
seconds to open, float a straw and empty itself.

773 million servings of Coca-Cola products (drink) …………………………………………every day around the world.

Nine billion litres of Coca-Cola (sell) ……………………………………………………….…….. in Britain last year.

(Statistics 1995)

Task 4 : Read the following extract then fill in the gaps choosing the active or passive voice.

Police ? I want to report a burglary. My house …………………………………………………... (steal).

‘I went to put the key in the door and the door ………………………………………. (go).’Mr. McSharry
said yesterday. ‘Not only that, but the stone around the door ……………………………………….………
(take) too. Inside there was almost nothing left and I ……………………………………….. (think) there
must have been a terrible mistake. It is the worst theft I ………………………………………………….. (ever/
see). There was nothing left but the walls.’

The police believe the theft ……………………………………………………………… (carry out) by an

organised gang.It is important they ……………………………………………… (catch),’ said Mr.
McSharry.‘You can………………………..(replace)a door,but you can’t ………………………………………
(replace) a whole house.’