2. Passive voice is used when the focus on the action. It´s used to show interest
in the person or object that experiences an action rather than on object that
performs the action.
Form of the passive voice verb.
It´s formed with the auxiliary verb “to be” and the past participle of the verb
to be conjugated.
The complement of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive.
The agent subject is expressed whit the preposition “by”.
The passive voice is frequently used by newspaper.
The passive voice in normally formed in the following way:
Subject to be past participle object and
complement
agent
Tom was sent a book (by Mr. Smith)
The agent has been placed between brackets because it is only in the added
in the passive sentence when the doer of the action is known and we are
interested in saying it.
3. General rules of passive
Subject + auxiliary verb (to be) + past participle
Examples of the following tense:
Tense Active Passive (past participle)
Present simple
Past simple
Present perfect
Past perfect simple
Future with will
Going to future
go/goes
went
have/has gone
had gone
will go
is going go
am/is/are gone
was/were gone
have/has been gone
had been gone
will be gone
is going to be gone
Modal verbs
Must
Can
Should
must go
can go
should go
must be gone
can be gone
should be gone
4. Change the order of subject and object.
Adding auxiliary “to be” in the tense of the active voice.
Add the participle of the main verb.
For example:
Paco reads the newspaper (Active)
Subject + main verb + object
The newspaper is read by Paco
Subject + past participle + agent
5. Tom writes a letter
(Active)
The letter is writer by
Tom (Passive)
6. He ate all of the cookies (active)
All of the cookies were eaten by
him. (passive)
7. The housekeeper will clean the room. (Active).
The room will be cleaned by the housekeeper.
(Passive).
8. Mary has written the book. (active)
The book has been written by Mary. (Passive).
9. They should give me money (Active).
I should be given money by them. (Passive).
