Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Passive Voice
The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the "normal" voice. But sometimes we need the passive voice. In this lesson we look at how to construct the passive voice, when to use it and how to conjugate it.
subject
main verb (past participle) drunk employed by everyone. by this company. in euro. in dollars. in yen?
am are they
we want to make the active object more important we do not know the active subject
Passive Voice
Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are eaten by cats). Look at this sentence:
Normally we use by to introduce the passive object. But the gun is not the active subject. The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun. In the active voice, it would be: Somebody killed him with a gun. The gun is the instrument. Somebody is the "agent" or "doer".
present simple: It is made present continuous: It is being made present perfect: It has been made
Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses: infinitive Simple present past future to be washed It is washed. It was washed. It will be washed.
Passive Voice
past future It was being washed. It will be being washed.
conditional It would be being washed. perfect simple present past future It has been washed. It had been washed. It will have been washed.
conditional It would have been washed. perfect continuous present past future It has been being washed. It had been being washed. It will have been being washed.
Rewrite the sentences in passive voice. 1. Sheila is drinking a cup of tea ______________________________________ 2. My father is washing the car. ______________________________________ 3. Farmer Joe is milking the cows ______________________________________ 4. She is taking a picture of him ______________________________________ 5. I am writing a poem. ______________________________________ 6. We are not playing football ______________________________________ 7. He is not wearing a tie. ______________________________________ 8. Is she preparing the party? ______________________________________ 9. Are they talking about the meeting? ______________________________________ 10. Is she watering the flowers? ______________________________________
the test / write ______________________________________ the table / set ______________________________________ the cat / feed ______________________________________ the lights / switch on ______________________________________ the house / build ______________________________________ dinner / serve ______________________________________ this computer / sell / not ______________________________________ the car / stop / not ______________________________________ the tables / clean / not ______________________________________