1. PASSIVE VOICE
We use the passive voice when:
You want to be formal, impersonal, academic.
When the DOER is not important or is OBVIOUS
The car was stolen (by thieves) / The robbers were captured
(by the police)
Part of a journalistic style (newspapers, magazines,
journals etc)
When the action/process is more important than the DOER
Someone stole my bag (active voice) / My bag was stolen
(passive) karobe82@hotmail.com
2. HOW TO CHANGE FROM ACTIVE TO PASSIVE
To change an active sentence into the passive voice follow the next
steps:
1. Indentify the tense of the sentence
2. Identify the OBJECT of the sentence (WHAT + VERB = object)
3. The object will be the subject for passive voice
4. Conjugate the passive voice according to the tense and add the
complement in a coherent way
For instance:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote 100 años de soldedad in 1985
1. PAST SIMPLE
2. “What + wrote?” = cien años de soledad
3. Cien años de soledad WAS WRITTEN in 1985 (by Gabriel…)
3. TYPES OF PASSIVE VOICE SENTENCES
As well as the active sentences, passive voice also have some
special rules forms in specific tenses:
For present simple tenses:
SUBJECT + BE (present or past) + VERB IN
PAST PARTICIPLE+ COMPLEMENT
The shopping mall WAS BUILT in three years
(by the Aero company)
4. CONTINUOUS TENSES
For continous tenses:
SUBJECT + BE (present or past) + BEING +
VERB IN PAST PARTICIPLE+ COMPLEMENT
The shopping mall IS BEING BUILT this year
5. PERFECT TENSES
In perfect tenses:
SUBJECT + HAVE/HAS/(HAD)+ BEEN + Verb in
past participle + complement
The building has been built this year (by the Aero
company)
6. FUTURE PASSIVE VOICE
For the future passive voice “will” is more likely to be used
Subject+ WILL + BE + verb in past participle+
complement
A new Harry Potter book WILL BE written by J. K.
Rowling
7. MODAL PASSIVE
For modal sentences:
Subject + MODAL VERB + BE+ verb in past participle
Colombian people SHOULDN’T BE DEPORTED from
Venezuela by Nicolas Maduro
8. REPORTING VERBS
The passive voice is often used with reporting verbs such as
think, consider, believe, understand, expect etc. These
constructions are common in formal writing
ACTIVE SENTENCE:
People believe that Bill Gates is the richest man in the
world
PASSIVE SENTENCE:
It is believed that Bill Gates is the riches man in the
world
9. TWO CASES WITH REDUCED PASSSIVE
There are two cases where you will only leave THE VERB IN PAST
PARTICIPLE and is still showing a passive voice sentence.
1. Reduced passive in NEWSPAPERS HEADLINES:
When you see a newspaper headline this is generally written in the passive voice
but the writters usually do this: they only leave the verb in past participle
because they assume you know that the headline will be in the passive
voice
The full form of this would be: BABY WAS STOLEN AT HOSPITAL
10. The second case were they use the reduced passive is when you
find the combination:
Subject+ RELATIVE PRONOUN + PASSIVE VOICE+ complement
When this happens you can take out the relative pronoun and only
leave the verb in PAST PARTICIPLE.
For example:
The people (who were) SENT to prison rejected to confess
their crimes
How would you change the next sentence?
My favourite book is ‘Bleak House’ which was written by
Dickens
11. PASSIVE WITH AUXILIARIES GET /
HAVE
We often use have + verb in past pariticiple to talk about services which we
arrange and we pay for, or sometimes for actions which may be
unplesant.
For example: la acción de tatuarse la espalda, conlleva a que se arregle una cita
para llevar a cabo la acción, además de eso debemos pagar por los servicios
del tatuador y adicional a ello podemos experimentar dolor en el momento del
tatuaje.
In English:
I will have tattoed my back on Friday/ yo me tatuare (hare tatuar) mi espalda el
Viernes
How do you say then in English “Ella se cortó el cabello el mes pasado”?
NOTE: remember that you have to conjugate have regarding
the tense your are using.
12. PASSIVE WITH AUXILIARIES GET /
HAVE
We use get + verb in past participle for actions which are
accidental or unexpected
For example: “yo estaba cocinando y me quemé la mano con el
aceite”
La accion accidental obviamente fue que se quemó la mano por
error entonces:
I was cooking and I GOT BURNT my hand
So how do you say in English: yo estaba haciendo ejercicio cuando
me golpee el brazo con una mancuerna (dumbbell)
13. PASSIVE WITH AUXILIARIES GET /
HAVE
There are also many expressions which are idiomatic and are
composed by a passive form such as:
Get dressed
Get married
Get engaged
Get lost (accidental)
Get assessed
