THE PASSIVE VOICE

A Form

1 La pasiva de un verbo activo se forma poniendo el verbo ‘to be’ en el mismo tiempo en que
esté el verbo activo y añadiendo el participio pasado de dicho verbo activo. El Objeto Directo
o el Indirecto activo, si lo hubiere, se convierte en el Sujeto pasivo, mientras que el Sujeto
activo se convierte en el Complemento Agente pasivo, aunque éste frecuentemente se omite.

Activa:We keep the butter here.

Pasiva: The butter is kept here.
Activa:They broke the window.
Pasiva: They window was broken.
Activa:People have seen wolves in the streets.
Pasiva: Wolves have been seen in the streets.

Puede sorprender la pasiva de verbos que estén en tiempos continuos, ya que no es normal
encontrar la forma continua del verbo ‘to be’, pero es totalmente correcto. Observa:

Activa:They are repairing the house.

Pasiva: The house is being repaired.
Activa:They were carrying the injured player off the field.
Pasiva: The injured player was being carried off the field.

Otros tiempos continuos son muy rara vez empleados en voz pasiva, de modo que oraciones
como:

They have / had been repairing the road.

o They will / would be repairing the road.
no suelen ponerse en voz pasiva.

2 Si en la oración activa tenemos una combinación formada por ‘auxiliar + infinitivo’, lo

cambiaremos en voz pasiva por el mismo ‘auxiliar + infinitivo pasivo (be + participio
pasado)’:

Activa:You must shut these doors.

Pasiva: These doors must be shut.
Activa:You ought to open the windows.
Pasiva:The windows ought to be opened.
Activa:They should have told him.
Pasiva: He should have been told.

3 Observa que el Gerundio activo se convierte en activo con el ‘gerundio del verbo ‘to
be’(being) + un participio pasado’:

Activa:I remember my father taking me to the zoo.

Pasiva: I remember being taken to the zoo by my father.

4 A continuación puedes ver una tabla de conversión de tiempos activos en sus equivalentes
pasivos:
 Tiempo verbal Voz Activa Voz Pasiva
Present Simple keeps is kept
Present Continuous is keeping is being kept
Past Simple kept was kept
Past Continuous was keeping was being kept
Present Perfect has kept has been kept
Past Perfect had kept had been kept
Future will keep will be kept
Conditional would keep would be kept
Perfect Conditional would have kept would have been kept
Present Infinitive to keep to be kept
Perfect Infinitive to have kept to have been kept
Present Participle / Gerund keeping being kept
Perfect Participle having kept having been kept
B Uso
La voz pasiva se usa en inglés cuando nos interesa más poner el énfasis en lo que se ha hecho
que en quién lo hizo, o bien cuando se desconoce al agente:

My watch was stolen es mucho más frecuente que Thieves stole my watch.

C Verbos activos seguidos de un “object complement”(predicativo)

Después de algunos verbos, el objeto directo puede ir seguido de un “object complement”
(predicativo) – un sustantivo o un adjetivo que describe o clasifica al objeto directo.

Ejemplos:
Queen Victoria considered him a genius.(activa)
He was considered a genius by Queen Victoria. (pasiva)
They elected Mr Sanderson President. (activa)
Mr Sanderson was elected President. (pasiva)
We all regarded Kathy as an expert. (activa)
Kathy was regarded as an expert.(pasiva)
Tbe other children called her stupid.(activa)
She was called stupid by the other children.(pasiva)

D Verbos activos con dos objetos (directo e indirecto)

Fíjate que en teoría una oración que contiene un objeto directo y otro indirecto, tal como
Someone gave her a bulldog, podría tener dos formas pasivas:

She was given a bulldog.

A bulldog was given to her.

La primera de éstas es, con mucho, la más frecuente, es decir, aquella en la que el objeto
indirecto se convierte en el sujeto de la oración pasiva.

E Preposiciones con verbos pasivos

1 En una oración pasiva el agente se omite con frecuencia. Cuando aparece, lo hace precedido
por la preposición ‘by’ (* no ‘for’, ¡ojo!)

Activa:Goya painted this picture.

Pasiva: This picture was painted by Goya.
Activa:Who wrote it?
Pasiva: Who was it written by?
 Activa:What caused this crack?
Pasiva: What was this crack caused by?

Observa, sin embargo, que la forma pasiva de estas oraciones:

Activa:Smoke filled the room.

Pasiva: The room was filled with smoke.
Activa:Paint covered the lock.
Pasiva: The lock was covered with paint.

En estos casos, no se trata de agentes, sino de sustancias o instrumentos.

2 Al encontrarnos con una combinación ‘verbo + preposición / adverbio + objeto’, la

preposición o el adverbio permanecen inmediatamente detrás del verbo en la voz pasiva.

Activa:They threw away the old newspapers.

Pasiva: The old newspapers were thrown away.
Activa:He has looked after the children.
Pasiva:The children have been looked after.

ESTRUCTURAS COMPLEJAS EN VOZ PASIVA

1. Verbos activos seguidos de ‘that-clauses’ ( proposiciones subordinadas sustantivas en

función de O. D. encabezadas por “that”)

A. Después de verbos como: acknowledge, assume, believe, consider, estimate, feel, find, know,
presume, report, say, think, understand, etc.
Oraciones del tipo People think/ consider/ know/ etc. that he is ..... tienen dos formas pasivas
posibles:

It is thought/ considered/ known/ etc. that he is .....

He is thought/ considered/ known/ etc. to be .....

Ejemplos:
People say that Bill is difficult.(activa)
It is said that Bill is difficult.(pasiva)
Bill is said to be difficult.(pasiva)
They think that he has information which will be useful to the police. (activa)
It is thought that he has information which will be useful to the police. (pasiva)
He is thought to have information which will be useful to the police. (pasiva)

Cuando la proposición subordinada se refiere a una acción anterior, empleamos el infinitivo

perfecto:
People know that he was ..... (activa)
It is known that he was .....(pasiva)
He is known to have been .....(pasiva)

People believed that he was .... (activa)

It was believed that he was .... (pasiva)
He was believed to have been ....(pasiva)

Ejemplos:
 They believe that he spent two years in hospital. (activa)
It is believed that he spent two years in hospital. (pasiva)
He is believed to have spent two years in hospital. (pasiva)

They found that he had poliomyelitis. (activa)

It was found that he had poliomyelitis. (pasiva)
He was found to have had poliomyelitis. (pasiva)

B. En la subordinada de estos verbos puede aparecer el verbo “haber”(there is/are).

Ejemplos:
People think there are more than 3,000 different languages in the world. (activa)
It is thought that there are.....(pasiva)
There are thought to be ......(pasiva)

They say there is disagreement between the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary.(activa)
It is said that there is .....(pasiva)
There is said to be .......(pasiva)

2. Verbos activos que van seguidos de una “oración de infinitivo”.(Acusativo + Infinitivo)

A. Muchos verbos activos van seguidos de “object + to-infinitive”(acusativo + infinitivo con

“to”). En estos casos, el pronombre de objeto o el sustantivo que aparece delante del infinitivo
en la subordinada de la oración activa se convertirá en el sujeto pasivo y sólo se transforma a
voz pasiva el verbo de la proposición principal.

Ejemplos:
He asked me to send a stamped addressed envelope.(activa)
I was asked to send a stamped addressed envelope. (pasiva)

They believe him to be dangerous. (activa)

He is believed to be dangerous. (pasiva)

She told us not to come back. (activa)

We were told not to come back. (pasiva)

En cambio, observa este caso:

I don’t want people to forget me.(activa)
I don’t want to be forgotten.(pasiva)

Lo peculiar de este caso radica en que el sujeto de la proposición principal y el objeto directo
de la subordinada de la oración activa coinciden en la misma persona y que se transforma a
voz pasiva el infinitivo, esto es, el verbo de la proposición subordinada.

B. Otros verbos pueden ir seguidos, en oraciones activas, de infinitivos sin “to”: hear, see, make,
help y let. Al transformar estos verbos a voz pasiva hay que utilizar la preposición “to”,
excepto en el caso de let. El resto de transformaciones se hacen igual que en el apartado
anterior, es decir, el pronombre de objeto que va delante del infinitivo de la proposición
subordinada en la oración activa se convierte en el sujeto pasivo y el verbo de la proposición
principal pasa de activa a pasiva.
 Ejemplos:
I saw him come out of the house. (activa)
He was seen to come out of the house. (pasiva)

They will make him tell them everything. (activa)

He will be made to tell them everything. (pasiva)

Pero:
They let him go. (activa)
He was let go. (pasiva)(infinitivo sin “to” de nuevo)

3. Verbos activos seguidos de un Gerundio.

El Gerundio después de algunos verbos activos es sustituido por should + be + past

participle.

Ejemplos:
Tom suggested selling the house.(activa)
Tom suggested that the house should be sold.(pasiva)

He proposed postponing the trip.(activa)

He proposed that the trip should be postponed.(pasiva)

He recommended buying new tyres.(activa)

He recommended that new tyres should be bought.(pasiva)

En cambio, observa estos ejemplos:

He hates people feeding him.(activa)
He hates being fed.(pasiva)
He remembers people treating him like this.(activa)
He remembers being treated like this.(pasiva)

Lo curioso de este caso es que coinciden el sujeto de la proposición principal y el objeto

directo de la proposición subordinada en la oración activa y que el verbo que se transforma en
pasivo es el gerundio de la subordinada.

4. Have something done.- (Causative structure)

A Study this example situation:

The roof of Jill's house was damaged in a storm, so she arranged for somebody to repair it.
Yesterday a workman came and did the job.

Jill had the roof repaired yesterday.

This means that Jill arranged for somebody else to repair the roof. She didn't repair it
herself.

We use have something done to say that we arrange for somebody else to do something for
us. Compare:
 • Jill repaired the roof. (=she repaired it herself)
• Jill had the roof repaired. (=she arranged for somebody else to repair it)

Study these sentences:

• Did Ann make the dress herself or did she have it made?
• 'Are you going to repair the car yourself?' 'No, I'm going to have it repaired.'

Be careful with word order. The past participle (repaired/cut etc.) is after the object (the
roof/your hair etc.):

have
+ object + past participle
Jill had the roof repaired yesterday.
Where did you have your hair cut?
Your hair looks nice. Have you had it cut?
Julia has just had central heating installed in her house.
We are having the house painted at the moment.
How often do you have your car serviced?
I think you should have that coat cleaned soon.
I don't like having my photograph taken.

B You can also say 'get something done' instead of 'have something done' (mainly in informal
spoken English):

• When are you going to get the roof repaired? (=have the roof repaired)
• I think you should get your hair cut.

Sometimes have something done has a different meaning. For example:

• Jill and Eric had all their money stolen while they were on holiday.

C Of course this does not mean that they arranged for somebody to steal their money. It means
only: 'All their money was stolen from them.'
With this meaning, we use have something done to say that something happens to
somebody or their belongings. Usually what happens is not nice:

• George had his nose broken in a fight.

• Have you ever had your passport stolen?