The passive voice

The passive voice

1)      Uses of the passive voice:

a)      We use the passive voice when we want to focus on the action rather than who is doing the action.

e.g: Three apples are eaten by Ahmed

b)      The passive voice is used when what or who causes the action is unknown or unimportant

e.g: Three apples are eaten

2)      Rules of the passive voice:

a.       The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb “be” into the same tense as the active verbs and adding the past participle of the active verb. The subject of the active verb becomes the agent of the passive verb.

b.      A sentence containing a direct and indirect object could have two passive forms.

e.g:  Ahmed gave her a book ............  she was given a book/  a book was given to her

c.       In colloquial speech “get” is sometimes used instead of “be”:

e.g: the eggs were broken       ↔  the eggs got broken          

           d.      Active tenses and their passive equivalents:

Tenses	Active form	Passive form
Simple present	Jane  writes a letter/ letters	S	A letter is written
		P	letters are written
Present continuous	Jane is writing a letter/ letters	S	A letter is being written
		P	letters are being written
Simple past	Jane wrote a letter / letters	S	A letter was written
		P	Letters were written
Past continuous	Jane was writing a letter / letters	S	A letter was being written
		P	Letters were being written
Present  perfect simple	Jane has written a letter/ letters	S	A letter has been written
		P	Letters have been written
Past perfect simple	Jane had written a letter / letters	S	A letter had been written
		P	Letters had been written
future	Jane will write a letter/ letters	S	A letter will be written
		P	Letters will be written

e.      With modals (must, may, should, would, could, might…….) the passive is formed in this way:

Modal+ be + the past participle of the verb

e.g:  you must pay the bill   è  the bill must be paid

you should respect your teacher  è your teacher should be respected

f.      With verbs such as “say, think, believe, assume, show, consider, expect, require….” The passive is formed in two ways.

e.g: people say that mobile phones are harmful to children’s health

----  It is said/ believed/ thought that mobile phones are harmful to children’s health.

----- Mobile phones are said/ believed/ thought to be harmful to children’s health.

            g.       The passive voice with questions:

active	passive
What did they steal? When/where/why did he paint it? Is he preparing the party? Who painted it?	What was stolen? When/where/why was it painted? Is the party being prepared by here? Who was it painted by?