Download Passive Voice - IES Alfonso Moreno

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, especially
in English, where the passive voiced is used much more than in Spanish.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE PASSIVE VOICE
The structure of the passive voice is very simple:
subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle) + complem.
Peter +
was +
employed +
by this company.
The main verb is always in its past participle form.
Look at these examples:
subject
auxiliary verb
(to be)
main verb (past
participle)
Water
Is
drunk
by everyone.
100
people
Are
Employed
by this
company.
I
Am
paid
in euro.
We
Are
not Paid
Are
They
paid
in dollars.
in yen?
THE USE OF BY
Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are
eaten by cats).
Look at this sentence:

He was killed with a gun.
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".
CONJUGATION FOR THE PASSIVE VOICE
We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the
passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle
form and the auxiliary verb is always be. To form the required tense, we
conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:



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
continuous
perfect simple
perfect continuous
to be washed
present
It is washed.
Past
It was washed.
Future
It will be washed.
conditional
It would be washed.
present
It is being washed.
Past
It was being washed.
Future
It will be being washed.
conditional
It would be being washed.
present
It has been washed.
Past
It had been washed.
Future
It will have been washed.
conditional
It would have been washed.
present
It has been being washed.
Past
It had been being washed.
Future
It will have been being washed.
Condicional
It would have been being washed.
USE OF THE PASSIVE VOICE
We use the passive when:

we want to make the active object more important
Ex. President Kennedy was killed by Lee H. Oswald.

we do not know the active subject
Ex. My wallet has been stolen.

we wish to make an statement sound impersonal (perhaps out of
modesty, or when we have some unpleasant statement to make).
Ex. The new adjustments that will be introduced won’t be very
popular.
THE USE OF IMPERSONAL ‘IT’
Another type of sentence in the passive is that consisting of Subject+Verb
(say, feel, expect, etc.)+Noun clause Object:
Ex. (Active): Someone says that he knows very influential people
Ex. (Passive): It is said that he knows some very influential people.
This sentence can be substituted by another one where the subject of
the noun clause can be made the subject of the whole sentence
and the verb takes the infinitive form.
Ex. He is said to know very influential people.
SENTENCES WITH TWO OBJECTS
There is one particular construction in the passive that may appear
strange. In a sentence like the following, there are two objects, one
direct and one indirect:
Ex. (Active voice) The crowd gave the King a great reception.
IO
DO
If this is expressed in the passive, we generally make the indirect object
the subject, especially as the indirect object in this type of sentence is
personal, and we tend to be more interested in persons than things.
Ex. (Passive) The King was given a great reception by the crowd.
Subject
DO
There are occasions, however, when we wish to make the direct object
the subject (or the "focus of interest") of the passive construction. In such
cases, we would give more importance to what is done than to whom it
is done:
Ex. (Active)We will offer a high salary to a really suitable applicant.
Ex. (Passive) A high salary will be offered to a really suitable applicant.