Lecture 4

Passive voice
Causative verb
PASSIVE VOICE
 Forming the passive
• Form of the passive: be + past participle
• Only transitive verbs (verbs that are followed by an
object) are used in the passive.

• Example:
S V O
– ACTIVE: Mary helped the boy.
S V O
– PASSIVE: The boy was helped by Mary.
S V
– ACTIVE: An accident happened.
 Using the passive
ADV
S V (PLACE)
• PASSIVE: Rice is grown in India
• ACTIVE : ?
Someone grow rice in India

• Usually the passive is used without the “by

phrase” when it is not known or not important
to know who exactly perform the action.
 Examples
GRAMMAR ACTIVE
Simple present Mary helps John.
Present progressive Mary is helping John.
Present perfect Mary has helped John.
Simple past Mary helped John.
Past progressive Mary was helping John.
Past perfect Mary had helped John.
Simple future Mary will help John.
Be going to Mary is going to help John.
Future perfect Mary will have helped John.
PASSIVE
John is helped by Mary
John is being helped by Mary
John has been helped by Mary
John was helped by Mary
John was being helped by Mary
John had been helped by Mary
John will be helped by Mary
John is going to be helped by Mary
John will have been helped by Mary

The progressive form of the present perfect, past perfect,

future, and future perfect are rarely used in passive
Indirect objects as passive subjects
Indirect Direct
• Active: object object
– Someone gave Mrs. Lee an award.
– Someone gave an award to Mrs. Lee.
• Passive:
– Mrs. Lee was given an award.
– An award was given to Mrs. Lee.

• Either I.O. or D.O. may become the subject of the

passive voice.
• When the D.O. become the subject, to is usually
used in front of the I.O.
Causative Verbs:

HAVE, GET, MAKE, LET, HELP

 Using Make, Have, Get
It is used to express the idea that ‘X’ causes ‘Y’
to do something.
Verb in
a) I made my brother carry my bag. simple form

b) I had my brother carry my bag.

c) I got my brother to carry my bag.

Verb in
infinitive form
 The difference in meaning
a) I made my brother carry my bag.
means my brother had no choice. I insisted that he
carry my bag.

b) I had my brother carry my bag.

means my brother carried my bag simply because I
asked him to.

c) I got my brother to carry my bag.

means I managed to persuade my brother to carry my
bag.
 Passive meaning
d) I had my car repaired. (by someone)
e) I got my car repaired. (by someone)

Past participle
or V3

a) and e) have little to no difference: I caused

my car to be repaired by someone.
 Using Let and Help
A. My father let me drive his car.
B. My mother helped me make pasta.
C. My mother helped me to make pasta.

Let is always followed by simple form of a verb

while help can be followed by either verb one or
an infinitive.