THE PASSIVE

THE PASSIVE
It is much more frequent in English than in Catalan
It is used when we want to change the focus of the sentence
 Passives uses
1
When we prefer not to mention who or what does the
action → it is obvious, unknown or irrelevant
2
So that we can start the sentence with the most important
or most logical information (the performer is less important
than the action; the recipient is the main topic)

3
In more formal or scientific writings
 EXAMPLES

ACTIVE → Someone stole my bike (focus on someone)

PASSIVE → My bike was stolen (focus on my bike)

-A lot of olive oil is produced in Italy

-This book was written by Angela Davis
-The suspect will be released tomorrow
-This product has not been tested on animals
 So… how do we make the passive?

Using the verb be + past participle

writing the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need and then adding the main verb in past
participle. Remember: Object always goes FIRST → object + be + past participle

James Cameron directed (past simple tense) Avatar

Avatar was (be past simple tense) directed (past participle) by James Cameron (agent of the sentence)

The agent is the person or thing that performs the action and is the subject of the active sentence. In most passive
sentences, by and the agent are not mentioned: My flight was cancelled (by the airline).
 So… how do we make the passive?

If there is a modal in the active question, or a verb in

Future Simple or a compound tense → they go first
The verbs has, have, had, will, shall, can, may etc., do not change their position at the beginning of the sentence

when the active voice is changed to the passive voice.

Active voice: Have you invited them? Active voice: Will Phil assemble the table?

Passive voice: Have they been invited? (by you?) Passive voice: Will the table be assembled? (by Phil?)
PASSIVE VOICE
EXERCISES