The Passive Voice

Our Topics TOday

§ The form of Passive voice

§ Problems with passive voice

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 1.
Passive voice

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 The Active and Passive Sentence
✘ An active sentence has the person or thing that does the verb (the doer) in the beginning of the
sentence, followed by the verb, and finally the person or thing that the action happens to (the patient).
✘ A passive sentence places the patient in the beginning of the sentence and the doer at the later
part of the sentence.

ACTIVE SENTENCE PASSIVE SENTENCE

She published that book. That book was published by her.
S V O S V O

The doer The verb The patient The patient The verb The doer

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 How to create a passive sentence?

✘ Swap the subject -> object

✘ Make sure you know the origin tense, like in the previous sentence, the

former sentence is from simple past, that’s why in the passive sentence,

past to be is used.

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 The Passive Sentence
Passive is used in order to:
a. Change the focus of the sentence
The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. (Here, the painting is more interesting than the artist.)
b. Disregard the when, who or what causes the action
He was arrested. (Obvious agent, the police)
c. Show factual or scientific writing
The chemical is placed in a test tube and the data are entered into the computer.
d. Put new information at the end of the sentence to improve style
Three books are used regularly in the class. The books were written by Dr. Bell. (‘Dr. Bell wrote the
books’ sound clumsy.)

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 The Passive Sentence
✘ Passive sentence can be created by putting the ‘to be’ into whatever tense followed by the past participle
(V3). Be careful with irregular verbs.

Active  She writesresearch paper on the weekend.

are written
Passive  The research papers
paper is written by her on the weekend.
to be Past participle (V3)
Active  The Doctor pierced the acupuncture needles on the patient’s foot.
Passive  The acupuncture needles were pierced by the Doctor on the patient’s foot.
to be Past participle (V3)

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Problems with Passive

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 I. Incorrect form
THE FORM OF PA S S I V E
TO BE + PAST PARTI CIP LE (V3 ) (BY +
OBJECT)

✘ The verb is in the wrong form,

The house ............... in the seventh century.
The bridge was hitting by a large ship during a sudden storm last week.
A  B C D A. built
B. was building
A new pair of jeans will be buy by Samantha at the mall tomorrow. C. builds
A B
 C D

D. was built
✘ Lack of BE

Champaigne and wine drunk by Calvin and Gerald at the dinner last night.
A  B C D

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 II. wrong passive meaning
A C T I V E A N D PA S S I V E M E A N I N G S
ACTIVE The subject does the action of the verb
PA S S I V
The subject receives the action of the verb
E

The X-Ray treatments ..................... up to the time that The population of Houston ..................... In 1839 to 1867.
he was dismissed from the hospital. active
A. ravaged the yellow fever
A.

gave daily active
passive

B. was ravaged by the yellow fever passive
B. were given daily
C. ravaging the yellow fever active
C. basically have given active passive
D. is being ravaged by the yellow fever
D. daily had been given passive

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Thank
you

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