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    The Passive Voice

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    Angel Muñoz Ruiz

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The Passive Voice

    Uploaded by

    Angel Muñoz Ruiz
    12 views9 pages

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    12 views9 pages

    The Passive Voice

    Uploaded by

    Angel Muñoz Ruiz

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 9

    The Passive

    Voice
    Passive Voice
    • Let’s look at this sentence:
    “I drank two cups of coffee”
    • This is an active sentence and it has the subject first (the
    person or thing that does the verb), followed by the
    verb, and finally the object (the person or thing that the
    action happens to).
    • So, in this example, the subject is 'I', the verb is 'drank'
    and the object is 'two cups of coffee'.
    • But, we don't always need to make sentences this way.
    We might want to put the object first, or perhaps we
    don't want to say who did something. This can happen
    for lots of reasons (see the explanation further down the
    page). In this case, we can use a passive, which puts the
    object first:
    • “Two cups of coffee were drunk” (we can add 'by me' if
    we want, but it isn't necessary).
    Passive Voice
    • When should we use the passive?
    1) When we want to change the focus of the
    sentence:
    The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci.
    (We are more interested in the painting than the artist
    in this sentence)
    2) When who or what causes the action is unknown or
    unimportant or obvious or 'people in general':
    He was arrested (obvious agent, the police).
    My bike has been stolen (unknown agent).
    The road is being repaired (unimportant agent).
    The form can be obtained from the post office
    (people in general).
    Passive Voice
    3) In factual or scientific writing:
    The chemical is placed in a test tube and the data
    entered into the computer.
    4) In formal writing instead of using someone/ people/
    they (these can be used in speaking or informal
    writing):
    The brochure will be finished next month.
    5) In order to put the new information at the end of
    the sentence to improve style:
    Three books are used regularly in the class. The
    books were written by Dr. Bell. ('Dr. Bell wrote the
    books' sound clumsy)
    Passive Voice
    Passive Voice
    Verbs with two objects
    • Some verbs that have two objects can make two
    different active sentences, and so two different
    passive sentences too. For example, the verb ‘give’
    is like this:
    Active: He gave me the book / He gave the book
    to me.
    • You can choose either of the two objects to be the
    subject of the passive sentence.
    Passive: I was given the book (by him)/ The book
    was given to me (by him).
    • Other verbs like this are: ask, offer, teach, tell, lend,
    promise, sell, throw.
    Passive Voice
    Impersonal Passive
    • The impersonal passive: is a formal way of reporting
    thoughts, saying, beliefs and opinions.
    • The verbs that are used in impersonal passive
    construction: think, believe, say, report, know,
    expect, consider, and understand.
    Examples:
    • People say that children are afraid of ghosts.
    It is said that children are afraid of ghosts.
    • People say that this orchestra is the best in the
    world.
    This orchestra is said to be the best in the world.
    • They think he will attend the meeting
    He is thought to attend the meeting.
    Passive Voice
    The rule:
    • It + passive construction + that-clause
    E.g. The students say that the exam was easy.
    It is said that the exam was easy.
    E.g. People say she is a great teacher.
    It is said that she is a great teacher
    • S + passive construction + to + inf.
    E.g. The students say that the exam was easy.
    The exam is said to have been easy.
    E.g. People say she is a great teacher.
    She is said to be a great teacher.
    Have/get sth Done
    • We use this structure when we want to talk about
    something that someone else did for us or for
    another person. It means that the subject caused
    the action to happen, but they didn't do it
    themselves.
    I cleaned my house. (This means I cleaned it myself).
    I had/got my house cleaned=A cleaner cleaned my
    house.
    The students get their writings checked (by the
    teacher).
    I am going to get/have my eyes tested on Friday.
    He has his suits cleaned at the dry-cleaner’s.
    Last week, I had the car tyres changed.
    Where do you get your nails done?

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