Passive

Voice
 • The focus of attention is on the action and not the
person who causes the action (actor).
Rome and Juliet was published in 1597.

• The actor is unknown, irrelevant, obvious, or the

Use speaker doesn’t want to mention it.

A UN shelter has been destroyed this morning in Syria.

• In formal style: scientific research, academic

papers, etc.
The subjects were interviewed separately and then…
 The passive voice cannot be used with
intransitive verbs (i.e. verbs with no object)

Form
John Mowlen built the modern version of the London Bridge

Subject Object

The modern version of the London Bridge was built by John Mowlen

Subject Agent
 Scientist will build an affordable rocket in 2020

Active Passive
Present Simple am/is/are + participle (pp)

Verbal Present Continuous

Present Perfect
am/is/are + being + pp
have/has + been + pp

changes
Past Simple was/were + pp
Past Continuous was/were + being + pp
Future Simple will be + pp

An affordable rocket will be built in 2020

 • It refers to the person or institution responsible for the
action.
• It is normally introduced by the word by.
• It can be omitted, especially when the subject is unknown
(someone, people), unimportant.

Agent By
Someone locked the front door.
The front door was locked (by someone)

Someone wrote The Life of Lazarillo of Thormes in 1554.

The Life of Lazarillo of Thormes was written in 1554.
  With verbs that have two objects (direct and indirect objects), there
are two different ways of forming the passive, one in which the direct
object is the subject of the passive sentence, and a second form in
which the subject of the passive sentence is the indirect object.

Two Mary bought Peter a new car

objects Direct object

Indirect object
A new car was bought to Peter (by Mary)

Peter was bought a new car (by Mary)

 Although form where the subject is a person is more common than the
alternative, the both sentences are equally valid.
  The causative is used to indicate that somebody has arranged for another
person to do something for them instead of doing it themselves (e.g. The
plumber will repair my water pipes, but I called the plumber).

I will have / get my water pipes repaired (by the plumber)

(subject + have(more formal)/get + object + participle)
Causative
 If we want to make clear reference to the person that does the action we
could use the following structures:

Have + object + bare infinitive I will have the plumber fix my water pipes

Get + object + infinitive I will get the plumber to fix my water pipes

* The forms with have are more common in AmE and the forms with get in BrE.
  We use the impersonal passive to report feelings, opinions or
beliefs. We use it when we don’t want to mention who said
something (maybe because we don’t know it) or we are reporting
a general belief that cannot be attributed to a single entity.
 We usually use the reporting verbs: say, believe, consider, expect,
know, think, understand and state.

Impersonal People said that Mary was the best team player.

passive It + passive verb + clause (that)

It was said that Mary was the best team player.

Subject + passive verb + infinitive / perfect infinitive

Mary was said to be / to have been the best team player.