Active Voice & Passive Voice

USES

* The passive voice is used:

a) when we do not know or we are not interested in or we can easily guess who did something

Her jewels were stolen. / Coffee is grown in Brazil. / The thief was arrested.

b)when we are more interested in the action than the doer (for example in newspaper headlines, articles, announcements, advertisements, instructions)

The car has been damaged.

c)when we do not want to mention who did something because we want to be polite

It hasn't been cleaned!

* The passive voice is used more in the written form than in the oral speech.

FORM

Transitive verbs (verbs with objects) have both active and passive voice.

The passive voice is formed with the verb to be with a past participle.

The verb to be

Simple Present	am/is/are
Present Continuous	am/is/are being
Simple Past	was/were
Past Continuous	was/were being
Present Perfect	have/has been
Past Perfect	had been
Simple Future	will be
Simple Future Perfect	will have been
Be going to	am/is/are going to be
Modal Verb	Modal verb + be
Gerund	being

Four Steps from the Active to the Passive Voice

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

1) the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.

2) use the verb to be in the tense of the main verb

3) use the past participle of the main verb

4) the subject of the active sentence becomes the agent of the passive sentence. The agent is introduced with the preposition by+person or with + thing / tool / instrument / material / ingredient. The agent is not mentioned when the subject of the active sentence is 'people', 'one', 'someone', 'somebody', 'they', 'he' etc.

                      Subject            Verb            Object

Active Voice: The company employs eighty people.

 

                                       1         2       3              4

Passive Voice: Eighty people are  employed by the company.

Notes

1) When the object of the active sentence is an object pronoun (me, you, him, them etc) becomes a subject pronoun in the passive voice.

Mark told me. ð I was told by Mark.

2)Verbs with TWO objects: direct and indirect (bring, tell, send, show, teach, promise, buy, throw, write, award, hand, sell, owe, grant, allow, feed, pass, post, read, take, offer, give, pay, lend) can form the passive voice in two ways.

Mrs Brown teaches us English. * We are taught English by Mrs Brown. (more common)

                                                    * English is taught to us by Mrs Brown.

3)When the verb is followed by a preposition, the preposition remains in the passive voice.

A baby-sitter looks after my baby.  * My baby is looked after by a baby-sitter.

4) Verbs of saying/believing/perception (agree, assume, believe, consider, expect, feel, find, hope, know, report, say, suppose, think, understand). These verbs can form the passive in two ways:

a) personal construction - it is used more frequently than impersonal construction

He is said to play tennis well.

b) impersonal construction

It is said that he plays tennis well.

The passive is formed with the verb of saying or believing in the passive form followed by the 'to-infinitive' of the verb.

5)The verbs help, make, see, hear are followed by bare infinitive in the active voice and by full infinitive in the passive voice.

He made me tell lies! * I was made to tell lies!

6) Let + bare infinitive  * Let+reflexive pronoun+bare passive infinitive

Tom lets people cheat him. * Tom lets himself be cheated.

Tense	Active Voice	Passive Voice
Present Simple	Tina waters the plants twice a week.	The plants are watered twice a week.
Present Continuous	Mary is decorating her flat.	The flat is being decorated.
Past Simple	Graham Bell invented the telephone.	The telephone was invented by Graham Bell.
Past Continuous	He was delivering the letters.	The letters were being delivered.
Present Perfect	She has broken the vase.	The vase has been broken.
Past Perfect	The cleaner had cleaned the windows.	The windows had been cleaned.
Future Simple	I will buy new carpets.	New carpets will be bought.
Future Perfect	Tom will have painted the walls.	The walls will have been painted.
Be going to	The gardener is going to plant some trees.	Some trees are going to be planted.
Modals	She should clean her room.	Her room should be cleaned.
Gerund	I can't stand people asking me questions.	I can't stand being asked questions.

Video 1
Video 2