2. WHY SHOULD WE USE PASSIVE
VOICE?
• We don’t know the subject of the action (doer)
That house was burnt down
• We know the subject of the action but do not want to mention it, for
whatever the reason
The Ming vase was badly broken, I’m sorry mum.
• We are more interested in the action itself than in the doer.
Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming
3. HOW DO WE NORMALLY CHANGE
VERBS FROM ACTIVE TO PASSIVE
VOICE?
We normally need the auxiliary verb “to be”, which we
conjugate in the same tense as the main verb in the
active verb, followed by the main verb in past participle.
Eg:
The woman bought a new car.
S V CD
WAS/WERE BOUGHT
4. ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE
I DO IT IT IS DONE
I DID IT IT WAS DONE
I WILL DO IT IT WILL BE DONE
I WOULD DO IT IT WOULD BE DONE
I HAVE DONE IT IT HAS BEEN DONE
I HAD DONE IT IT HAD BEEN DONE
I WILL HAVE DONE IT IT WILL HAVE BEEN DONE
I WOULD HAVE DONE IT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE
Notice that if we count verbs, in passive voice there is always one more verb
than in active voice (the auxiliary “to be”), that is a wonderful trick to know if
we are conjugating the verb correctly, by counting verbs ☺
5. ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE
I AM DOING IT IT IS BEING DONE
I WAS DOING IT IT WAS BEING DONE
I WILL BE DOING IT IT WILL BE BEING DONE
I WOULD BE DOING IT IT WOULD BE BEING DONE
I HAVE BEEN DOING IT IT HAS BEEN BEING DONE
I HAD BEEN DOING IT IT HAD BEEN BEING DONE
I WILL HAVE BEEN DOING IT IT WILL HAVE BEEN BEING DONE
I WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING IT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BEING
DONE
*I AM GOING TO DO IT IT IS GOING TO BE DONE
CONTINUOUS TENSES:
6. WITH MODAL VERBS:
ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE
I CAN DO IT IT CAN BE DONE
I COULD DO IT IT COULD BE DONE
I MUST DO IT IT MUST BE DONE
I MAY DO IT IT MAY BE DONE
I MIGHT DO IT IT MIGHT BE DONE
I HAVE TO DO IT IT HAS TO BE DONE
I SHALL DO IT IT SHALL BE DONE
I SHOULD DO IT IT SHOULD BE DONE
I OUGHT TO DO IT IT OUGHT TO BE DONE
7. TYPES OF PASSIVE VOICE:
•DIRECT OBJECT
•INDIRECT OBJECT
•CAUSATIVE HAVE/GET
•IMPERSONAL
•PERSONAL
•HAVE SOMEONE DO
•GET SOMEONE TO DO
In this presentation we are only going to see the first two
types.
8. DIRECT OBJECT
For this passive voice we need a transitive verb, therefore
we’ll also need a direct object.
My mother buys all the weekly supplies
S V CD
All the weekly supplies are bought by my mother
S V AGENT
9. INDIRECT OBJECT
For this passive voice we only need an intransitive verb and
an indirect object.
My brother has talked to my sister for hours
S V CD CC
My sister has been talked for hours by my mother
S V CC AGENT
10. WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE ARE
BOTH OBJECTS IN THE SAME
SENTENCE?
If you find a sentence with both direct and indirect objects,
then you can do both types of passive voice, depending on
what you want to empasize:
My brother has bought my sister a new toy
S V CI CD
A new toy has been bought for my sister by my brother
S V CI AGENT
My sister has been bought a new toy by my brother
S V CD AGENT
11. *NOTE:
In any of these types of passive voice if the subject in the
active is:
“people”, “somebody”, a personal pronoun (he, she, I, they,
etc)
we tend to omit the agent of the sentence, that is the “doer”
of the action
