The document discusses passive voice in three paragraphs. It defines passive voice as emphasizing what was done rather than who did it. It describes the agent as the person who performs the action in passive sentences. It also discusses different passive forms using verbs like "be," "get," and "have." It explains which types of verbs can and cannot be used in the passive voice and the differences between transitive and intransitive verbs. Finally, it notes that the passive with "be" is more formal while "get" is more colloquial.

1. Passive voice
Module 5
María Irene Albers de Urriola
MA in Applied Linguistics
Specialist in Computer Technology in Education

2. Meaning
When the speaker or writer wants to emphasize what
someone did or made. In the examples given by the
pictures, what is important is the paintings, not who
did them.
The passive is used when the new or important
information is:
1. What happened to the subject. Ex. I’ve been
sacked.
2. Who or what did it. Ex. The Celt’s Dream was
written by Vargas Llosa
3. How it was done. Ex. The conference was
extraordinary well organized.
• María Irene Albers de Urriola
• MA in Applied Linguistics
• Specialist in Computer Technology in
Education

3. Passive forms
• When referring to passive voice, we use the
word “AGENT” to refer to the person who
does an action, but it is not the “SUBJECT” in
the passive sentence.
Notice: Maria took some nice Heliconia pictures for
the calendar. Maria is the “AGENT” and the
“SUBJECT” in this sentence.
But in “Some nice Heliconia pictures were taken for the
calendar”, there is no “AGENT”, and the “SUBJECT” is
“Some nice Heliconia pictures”.
• María Irene Albers de Urriola
• MA in Applied Linguistics
• Specialist in Computer Technology in
Education

4. Different Passive Forms
• The most typical form is the passive with the verb
to be like in “My dog was bitten by a bat”
• But there are some based on get and have, they
are called pseudo-passive forms (Carter and
McCarthy, 2006) or causative constructions
(Parrot 2000).
• Ex: As it continued raining, Chichiriviche was
getting more and more flooded.
She had her hair done.
Picture from http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTWN9CmUQFVAawjpAfxT8Ke0dh99oUt9_oCy12fQ576OXFtD9py
• María Irene Albers de Urriola
• MA in Applied Linguistics
• Specialist in Computer Technology in
Education

5. Verbs & Passive Voice
• Copulative verbs, state verbs and intransitive
verbs DON’T accept passive voice.
Example: She likes roses.
Roses are liked by her.
The Twin Cities are important.
Important are been the Twin Cities.
• María Irene Albers de Urriola
• MA in Applied Linguistics
• Specialist in Computer Technology in
Education

6. Transitive & Intransitive Verbs
• Transitive verbs are those which take an
object to add more meaning.
– Example: Raise your hand. Hand is the object.
Mary washes the dishes. The dishes is
the object.
• Intransitive verbs DON’T take objects,
therefore they are used ONLY in ACTIVE
sentences.
– Example: Apples smell good.
• María Irene Albers de Urriola
• MA in Applied Linguistics
• Specialist in Computer Technology in
Education

7. Choosing between be and get
• The passive voice with be is formal, whereas
get is colloquial. But get may be chosen to
mean:
– That an action is unexpected, involuntary and
possibly unwelcome.
When he picked up the phone we got cut off.
– An achievement in the face of difficulty
I finally got admitted to hospital.
– An achievement based on something that has
been built up beforehand
She got elected.
• María Irene Albers de Urriola
• MA in Applied Linguistics
• Specialist in Computer Technology in
Education