By

Osmar Cruz

PASSIVE VOICE
 THE PASSIVE
FORM: We form the passive with the verb to be in the appropiate tense and
the past participle of the main verb.
TENSE ACTIVE PASSIVE
Present Simple They clean the house every day. The house is cleaned every day.
Present Continuous They are cleaning the house now. The house is being cleaned now.
Past Simple They cleaned the house yesterday. The house was cleaned yesterday.
Past Continuous They were cleaning the house at 10’o The house was being cleaned at 10’o
clock yesterday. clock yesterday.
Present Perfect Simple They have already cleaned the house. The house has already been
cleaned.
Past Perfect Simple They had cleaned the house. The house had been cleaned.
Future Simple They will clean the house tomorrow. The house will be cleaned tomorrow.
Infinitive They can clean the house. The house can be cleaned.
Modal Verbs They have to clean the house. The house has to be cleaned.
 ▪ The Present prefect continuous and the past perfect
continuous are not normally used in the passive.

• 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.

His car got damaged in the accident.

 ➢We use the ➢When the person who carries out the action is
passive: unknown, unimportant or obvious from the context.

(We don’t know who broke it.)

The window was broken.

Her lunch is delivered everyday (It’s not important who delivers it.)

The cows are milked (It’s obvious that the

once a day. farmer milks the cows.)
➢When the action itself is more important than the person doing it,
as in news headlines, newspaper articles, advertisements,
instructions, formal notices, etc.

Two teenagers were injured in a

skydiving accident yesterday.

➢ To make statements more formal or polite.

Smoking is prohibited in the museum.

 Changing from the • The object of the active sentence becomes
active to the passive: the subject in the passive sentence.

▪ 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.

Only transitive verbs (verbs

that take an object) can be They leave work early everyday.
changed into the passive.
(intransitive verb; no passive form).
 • By + agent to say who or what carries out an action. We use with +
instrument/material/ingredient to say what the agent used.

The sauce was made by a famous chef. It

was made with garlic and chilli peppers.

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

They have eaten all the food. (active)

All the food was eaten. (passive)

 • The agent is not omitted when it is a specific or important person, or when it
is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

The restaurant was opened by Robert De Niro.

• With verbs which can take two objects, such as bring, tell, send, show, teach,
promise, sell, read, offer, give, lend, etc, we can make two different passive
sentences.

He gave her a cookery book. (active)

She was given a cookery book. (passive, more common)
A cookery book was given to her. (passive, less common)

• In passive questions with

Who cooked this meal?
who, whom or which we
Who was this meal cooked by?
do not omit by.