Tense :highlights

A. present tense
I. Simple present tense - I clean my room.
II. Present continuous tense –I am cleaning my room.
III. Present perfect tense-I have cleaned my room.
IV. Present perfect continuous tense-I have been cleaning my
room.

B. Past tense
V. Simple past tense –I cleaned my room.
VI. Past continuous tense- I was cleaning my room.
VII.Past perfect tense-I had cleaned my room.
VIII.Past perfect continuous tense- I had been cleaning my room.

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C. Future tense
I. Simple future tense-I will/shall clean my room.
II. Future continuous tense-I will/shall be cleaning my
room
III. Future perfect tense-I will/shall have cleaned my
room.
IV. Future perfect continuous tense-I will/shall have
been playing football.
D. Conditional tense
V. present conditional tense-I would clean my room.
VI. Perfect conditional-I would have cleaned my room.

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 Active & Passive voice

Why we use passive voice (sentences):

• to emphasize the receiver of action,
e.g. President Kennedy was killed by a bullet.

• when the doer is not known or not important

e.g.1. A lot of money was stolen in the robbery. (Somebody stole it but we
don’t know who)
2. Is this room cleaned every day?(does somebody clean it?- it isn’t
important who)

• when the doer is an obvious (known)

e.g. Rice is grown in Asia.
• when we don’t want to mention the doer
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 NB:

• When you change active to passive voice:

1. The tense must be similar
Eg. She prepares coffee. Active ,s/present
Coffe is prepared. Passive, s/present
2.Only transitive verbs(that can be followed by
object) have passive forms
 Intransitive verbs like: go, die, sleep, rise, grow,
disappear, become, talk, feel do not take object ,so
their active form is not changed to the passive.
passive form: verb to be +past participle
Is/am/are/was/were/be/being/been+ v3
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Tense Active Passive

Once a week, the house is

Simple Present Once a week, Tom cleans cleaned by Tom.
Passive form=Is/are + v3 the house.
Is/are + v3
Present Continuous Right now, Tom is Right now, the house is
Is/are + being + v3 cleaning the house. being cleaned by Tom.

Present Perfect
Has/have + been + v3 Tom has cleaned the The house has been
house. cleaned by Tom.

Present Perfect Continuous Recently, Tom has been Recently, the house has been
Has/have been being+v3 cleaning the house. being cleaned by Tom.

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Simple Past The house was cleaned by
Tom cleaned the house.
Was/were + v3 Tom.

Past Continuous
Was/were + being + v3 Tom was cleaning the The house was being
house. cleaned by Tom.

Past Perfect
Had + been + v3 The house had been
Tom had cleaned the house.
cleaned by Tom.

Past Perfect Continuous Tom had been cleaning the The house had been being
had been being +v3 house. cleaned by Tom.

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Simple Future Tom will clean the house The house will be cleaned
Will/shall + be + v3 tomorrow. tomorrow.

Tom will be cleaning the The house will be being

Future Continuous
house by 5:00 PM. cleaned by Tom.

Future Perfect
Will/shall + have + been + The house will have been
Tom will have cleaned the
v3 cleaned before the
house before the deadline.
deadline.

Tom will have been

Future Perfect Continuous The house will have been
cleaning the house for over
Will/shall have been being being cleaned before the
two weeks by the time it is
+v3 deadline.
finished.

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 He must clean the house. The house must be
MODALS+be +V3 cleaned.
must/should/can/may/
have to/has to…+be +v3

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 Change the following active sentences to passive
1. They often do it.
2. They are doing it.
3. They did it yesterday.
4. They were doing it last week.
5. They have already done it.
6. They will soon do it.
7. They will soon have done it.
8. They had done it earlier.
9. They have to do it at once.
10.They may not have done it yet.
11. She reads fiction.
12.She read fiction.
13. Bandits killed the princess.
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 Verbs generally used in the passive

Bear, bore, born

Be born/be married/
I was born in 1988.√
I born…X
Are you married? √ =passive form but active in meaning
Do you marry? X
Are you married her? X
but we can say: I married her.
I got married last year.
She is married.

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 When there are two objects
• N. B. When there are two objects in a sentence you
can write your passive sentence by taking one of the
objects you would like to emphasize or to write about.

• Example: Active: She gave me a book.

Passive 1: A book was given to me by her. OR
Passive 2: I was given a book by her.
Active: He told me a story.
Passive 1: I was told a story.
Passive 2: A story was told to me
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 Have something done
• Meaning –we arrange for somebody else to do
something for us.
• We use have + object + v3
We’re having the house painted next week.
(We are not going to paint the house ourselves. Someone
else will paint it. The emphasis is on the fact that the
house is being painted rather than who is doing it.)

John painted the wall.(he did it himself)

John had the wall painted.(someone else painted for john)
We can use get+ object + v3 but less formal.

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 Questions
1. I had my hair cut. means
A. Someone cut my hair.
B. I’ve cut my hair.
C. I’d cut my hair.
D. I cut my own hair.
2. My friend is going to have a new garage---.
A. Build B. built C. to build D. builds
3. Sarah didn’t make her own wedding dress, she ---
by a designer in Italy
A. Made it B. had it made C. will make it

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4. Are they going to paint the kitchen
themselves, or---- ?
A. Get it painted B. paint it
5. I am a good cook, so I am going to ---.
A. prepare food B. have food prepared

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 It is said that---

Suppose, consider, know,believe. Acknowlede,

understand, say, assume, expect,prove …)
It is said that Almaz’s life is in a comma.
(people say that Almaz’s…)
There is/are said to be…
Eg. There is said to be plenty of petroleum in the
country.
Someone is said to be …
He is said to be in love.
She is said to know all the secret of the murder.

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 Active /Passive Rules for Interrogative

Rule 1
• If any Interrogative Sentence starts from do, does or did, 
use is/are/am/was and were according to the Number & Person of Object.
• Active: Does he help you?
• Passive: Are you helped by him?
• Active: Did he do this work?
• Passive: Was this work done by him?
Rule 2
• If it starts from is/are/am/was and were, then use being +v3 after the
subject and is/are/am/was and were to begin.
• Active: Are you doing this work?
• Passive: Is this work being done by you?
• Active: Was she reading a novel?
• Passive: Was a novel being read by her?

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 Steps to change active interrogatives to passive

• 1.change the question to statement.

• 2. change the statement to passive.
• 3. change the passive statement to interrogative/question.
• examples
• Does he help you?
• He helps you.
• You are helped.
• are You helped?
• Was she reading a novel?
• She was reading a novel
• A novel was being read.
• Was a novel being read?
• Has he helped you?
• He has helped you.
• You have been helped.
• have You been helped? COMPILED BY DESTAW W. DELL 17
• Rule 3
• When it starts from has/have and had, then we should use been+v3 after
the subject and has/have and had in starting of the sentences.
• Active: Has he helped you?
• Passive: Have you been helped by him?
• Active: Had he finished the work?
• Passive: Had the work been finished by him?

Rule 4
• When it starts from shall/will/can and should, use be after the new
subject and shall/will/can and should in starting of the sentences.
• Active: Can he do this work?
• Passive: Can this work be done by him?
• Active: Will you teach the children?
• Passive: Will the children be taught by you?

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• Rule 5
• When it starts from Why/When and How, then use them in starting of the sentences
and who should replace by By Whom.
• Active: Who has done this work?
• Passive: By Whom has this work been done?
• Active: When did you do this work?
• Passive: When was this work done by you?
• You did this work.
• This work was done.
• When Was this work done?
• Why do you learn English?
• You learn English.
• English is learned.
• Why Is English learned?
• Who helped you?
• (Some one) helped you.
• You were helped .
• By whom Were you helped?
• Who wrote the book?
• By whom was the book written?

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 More examples
1. Do you speak French?
2. IS FRENCH SPOKEN BY YOU?
3. Are they making the chair?
4. Is the chair being made?
5. Can you fix my watch?
6. Can my watch be fixed?
7. Have you watered the flowers?
8. Have the flowers been watered?
9. Shall I bring a solution?
10. Shall a solution be brought?
11. Who can speak Arabic?
12. By whom can Arabic be spoken?
13. Whom do you admire most?
14. Who is admired most?
15. When do you see the stars?
16. When are the stars seen?
17. Who saves this planet?
18. By whom is this planet saved?
19. Why do you admire him?
20. Why is he admired?
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•  Can he do this work?
• He can do this work.
• This work can be done.
• can this work be done?

• Who wrote the note?

• By whom was the note written?
• Who broke the window?
• By whom was the window broken?
• Who has broken the window?
• By whom has the window been broken?

•
• Was the room cleaned?
• Read/reads ,read,read
• Are you watering the plants?
• Are the plants being watered?
• Were you watering the plants?
• Were the plants being watered?
•  Can he do this work? COMPILED BY DESTAW W. DELL 21
 Imperative Sentence

1. To change active Order, Request and Advice to passive , we use :

You are requested to…….
You are ordered to….
you are advised to…..

For Example: 
•  Active: Please come here (request).
• Passive: You are requested to come here.
• Active: Walk slowly (advice).
• Passive: You are advised to walk slowly.
• Active: Go Out (order)
• Passive: You are ordered to go out.

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 2. Using ‘Let’
let+sub+be+v3….
• For Example:
• Active : Do this work./let you do this work
• Passive: let this work be done.

• Active: Let you teach the students.

• Passive: Let the students be taught.
• (You are ordered to teach the students.)
• Active: Let them do this work.
• Passive: Let this work be done by them.
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DELL
• Help your parents.
• A. you are advised to help your parents
• B .Let your parents be helped
• C, Your parents are helped
• A &B
• 1. Do your assignment.

• You are ordered to do your assignment.

• Let your assignment be done.
• 2.Close the books.
• You are ordered to close your books.
• Let the books be closed.
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 One, Someone, Nobody, Police, Judge and
People.
When the subject is the above word, it is not
necessary to mention them in the Passive
• For Example:
• Active: Someone has beaten me.
• Passive: I have been beaten.
• Active: The Police enquired into the Case.
• Passive: The Case was enquired into.

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DELL
• Communicative English Skills:SAMPLE QUIZ

• I. Find Nearly Similar Expressions for the Given

Sentences
• 1. John will invite Rita.
A. Rita will invite John. B. John will be invited.
• C. Rita will be invited. D. John was invited.
• 2. She gave me a present . A. I gave her a present.

• B. I was given a present.

• C. A present was given to me. D.A&B
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3. Who invented penicillin?
A. Who was invented penicillin? B. By whom was penicillin
invented?
C. Whom did penicillin invented? D. Why was penicillin invented?
4. Whom has she called?
A. Who has been called? B. whom has been called ?
C. by whom have been called ? D. who has called her?
5. Has she read the fiction?
A. Is the fiction read ? B. Has the fiction being read?
C. Has the fiction been read? D. Have the fiction been read?
6. Did Feven do this work?
A.Was this work done by Feven? B. Did this work done by Feven?
C. Was this work doing by Feven? D. Is this work done by Feven?

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7. Do your assignment.
A. You are ordered to do your assignment. B. Let you
do your assignment. C. Let your assignment be
done. D.A&C E.A&B

8. write your name correctly.

A. let you write your name correctly. B. you
are advised to write your name correctly
C. let your name be written correctly. D. B&C
E. A&B

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