1.

Purposes of Passive Voice

2. Structure of Passive Voice Verbs
3. Passive Voice in Tenses
4. Exercises
1. When the doer of an action is not known

2. When the object of an action is the

emphasis
Example:

The window has been broken. Who has broken it?

In this case, we do not know who broke the

window. So, the doer is not known. Instead of
starting the sentence with ‘somebody’, ie,
‘Somebody has broken the window.’, we can also
start the sentence with the supposed object too,
ie, the window.
Example:
This murderous killer was sentenced a life’s imprisonment.

In this case, we do not care about who made the

judgment. Instead, our emphasis is put on the
murderous killer. So, we start the sentence with
‘the killer’ in order to stand out our focus
concerned.
 Syntactic Structure
Active ----------------------- Passive
e.g. eats ----------------------- is eaten
i.e. verb ----------------------- be+p.p.

To explain, in a passive verb phrase, the structure is

‘be + p.p.’, in which, ‘be’ is changed according to its
tense and number.
3.1 Present Tenses
By using the verb ‘eat’,
Tenses Active Passive
Present - Simple -eats -is eaten

- continuous -is eating -is being eaten

- perfect -has eaten -has been eaten

- perfect continuous -has been eating -has been being
eaten

Note: In passive verb phrases, the last word is always in p.p. form.
3.2 Past Tenses
By using the verb ‘eat’,
Tenses Active Passive
Past - Simple -ate
- continuous -was eating
- perfect -had eaten
- perfect continuous -had been eating
-was eaten
-was being eaten
-had been eaten
-had been being eaten
3.3 Future Tense
By using the verb ‘eat’,
Tense Active Passive
Future - Simple -will eat
- continuous -will be eating
- perfect -will have eaten
- perfect continuous-will have been eating
-will be eaten
-will be being eaten
-will have been eaten
-NIL
Example:
People speak English in many countries
Compare: English is spoken in many countries.

Somebody/They pulled down the building last week.

Compare: The old building was pulled down (by then/somebody)
last week.

We will hold a meeting tomorrow.

Compare: A meeting will be held tomorrow (by us).

* ( ) means optional.
Exercise

1. Somebody cleans our classroom everyday.

2. Japan exported millions of cars last year.

3. Mr. Chan will feed his dog on canned food.

 Our classroom is cleaned everyday

Millions of cars were exported from Japan

last year.

Mr. Chan’s god will be fed on canned food.