2. There are two types of passive
voice sentences:
1.- Passive voice with agent.
2.- Passive voice without agent.

3. 1. Passive voice with agent:
 These sentences are the transformation
of active sentences like this one:
“Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona
Lisa”
where
“Leonardo” is the subject.
“painted” is the verb phrase.
And “the Mona Lisa” is the direct object.

4. The passive voice is a change in
the focus of the information
In active voice we give more importance to the subject. In
our sentence, Da Vinci gets the focus.
painted

5. However, with the passive voice we intend
the opposite effect. We focus on the object.
was painted

6. How do we transform an active
sentence into a passive
sentence?
 We must follow
three steps…

7. Step 1
 The direct object of the active sentence
becomes the subject (patient subject) of
the passive sentence:
Active
“Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa”
Passive
“The Mona Lisa…” is the patient subject.

8. Step 2
 The verb changes like this:
We put the verb “to be” in the tense of
the active voice sentence, followed by
the original verb in the past participle
form.
“Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa”
The verb is “paint” in past simple, so in
the passive voice we will have:
“The Mona Lisa was painted …”

9. Step 3
 The active subject (Leonardo), becomes the
Agent, always introduced by the preposition
“by”. This way:
“Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa”
becomes
“The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo”

10. 2. Passive voice without agent.
 The transformations are the same, but the
agent does not appear in the passive voice
sentence, because it is not important or it is
not known. For example:
In El Prado Museum a worker has
found another version of the Mona
Lisa. That worker is an anonymous
person, so.

11. We use a passive without agent.
has been found
“A different version of the Mona Lisa has
been found in El Prado Museum.”

12. Passive voice sentences without
agent usually come from active
sentences with subjects like:
Somebody, someone, they, people, e
tc…
Subjects that do not give much
important information.

13. Examples of passive voice
without agent are:
1.- People admire good singers.
Passive: “Good singers are admired.”
2.- Somebody has broken the window.
Passive: “The window has been broken.”
3.- They are building a new town hall.
Passive: “A new town hall is being built.”

14. 4.- Nobody has photographed the
baby.
Passive: “The baby hasn’t been
photographed .”
5.- Someone stole the new car
yesterday.
Passive voice: “The new car was
stolen yesterday.”

15. Other examples of passive with agent:
1.-“The policemen caught the thief.”
Passive: “The thief was caught by the
policemen.”
2.- “The lions were eating a zebra.”
Passive: “A zebra was being eaten by the
lions.”
3.-”The Japanese have invented a new
computer.”
Passive: “A new computer has been invented
by the Japanese.”

16. 4.- “Spain won the World Cup in
2010.”
Passive: “The World Cup was won
by Spain in 2010.”
5.- “Mary is making the coffee.”
Passive: “The coffee is being made
by Mary.”

17. TENSE FORM
Present Simple Am, is, are
Present continuous Am / is / are being
Past Simple Was, were
Past Continuous Was being, were being
Present Perfect Has been, have been
Future (will) Will be
Conditional (would) Would be
Goint to Am/ are / is going to be
Modals Can be, must be, etc…

18. Negative and Questions
 The first element in the verb phrase is
called the operator. For example:
“The car was being stolen.”
This is the operator
The operator is in charge of questions and
answers.

19. “People spend a lot of money on stupid
things.”
AFFIRMATIVE
“A lot of money is spent on stupid things”
INTERROGATIVE
“Is a lot of money spent on stupid things?
NEGATIVE
“A lot of money isn’t spent on stupid
things.”

20. THE END