The document is a lesson plan about using the passive voice in English. It contains 3 main sections: 1) An introduction explaining the difference between active and passive sentences. 2) A conceptualization section defining the passive voice and providing examples of its use in different tenses. 3) A production section explaining when the passive voice should be used, including examples. The lesson concludes with an exercise asking students to change active sentences to passive.

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Área: English Asignatura: English Curso: 8th
Fecha: 25 al 03-03 Periodo: I Nº Hor: 12hr Semana: 6
Tema: Thepassivevoice
Indicador Students will be able to use the passive voice.
de Logro
Exploración to use the passive voice
Contextualización
Using the active and passive voice
An active sentence like I drank two cups of coffee 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 not say
who did something, for lots of reasons (see the explanation further down the page).
In this case, we can use a passive, which puts the object first: for example, two cups of coffee were
drunk. We can add by me if we want, but it isn't necessary.
Conceptualización
The Passive in English
We make it by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need and then adding the past participle.
(For regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding 'ed' to the infinitive -
play becomes played, click here to learn about irregular verbs)
EMOCIÓN
g ACTIVE PASSIVE

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present simple I make a cake A cake is made (by me)
presentcontinuous I am making a cake A cake is being made (by me)
past simple I made a cake A cake was made (by me)
pastcontinuous I was making a cake A cake was being made (by me)
presentperfect I have made a cake A cake has been made (by me)
pres. perf. continuous I have been making a cake A cake has been being made(by me)
pastperfect I had made a cake A cake had been made (by me)
future simple I will make a cake A cake will be made (by me)
futureperfect I will have made a cake A cake will have been made(by me)
Producción
When should we use the Passive?
1. When we want to change the focus of the sentence:
o 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’:
o He was arrested (obvious agent, the police).
o My bike has been stolen (unknown agent).
o The road is being repaired (unimportant agent).
o The form can be obtained from the post office (people in general).
3. In factual or scientific writing:
o The chemical is placed in a test tube and the data entered into thecomputer.
4. In formal writing instead of using someone/ people/ they (these can be used in speaking or
informal writing):
o The brochure will be finished next month.
5. In order to put the new information at the end of the sentence to improve style:
o Three books are used regularly in the class. The books were written by Dr. Bell. (‘Dr.
ACCIÓN
Bell wrotethebooks’ soundclumsy)
6. When the subject is very long:
o I was surprised by how well the students did in the test. (More natural than: ‘how well

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the students did in the test surprised me')
Modelación
Use of Passive
Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who
or what is performing the action.
Example: My bike was stolen.
In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who
did it.
Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows:
Example: A mistake was made.
In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have
made a mistake.).
Form of Passive
Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular verbs)
Example: A letter was written.
When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:
 the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
 the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
 the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)
Taller
1). Change these sentences from active to passive:
1. People speak Portuguese in Brazil.
_______________________________________________________________
2. The Government is planning a new road near my house.
_______________________________________________________________
3. My grandfather built this house in 1943.
_______________________________________________________________
EVALUACION
4. Picasso was painting Guernica at that time.
_______________________________________________________________
5. The cleaner has cleaned the office.
_______________________________________________________________
6. He had written three books before 1867.
_______________________________________________________________

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7. John will tell you later.
_______________________________________________________________
8. By this time tomorrow we will have signed the deal.
_______________________________________________________________
9. Somebody should do the work.
_______________________________________________________________
10. The traffic might have delayed Jimmy.
_______________________________________________________________
Bibliografía
I. Understanding and using grammar (1999). Third edition. Betty SchrampferAzar.
II. The big picture (2011). Santillana Education. S.L Richmond Publishing.
III. Top Notch (2011). Second Edition, Student book. Pearson Education, Inc.