1. Marina Canales Martínez

2. Uses of passive voice
 The actor is unknown:

The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old
Stone Age.
 The actor is irrelevant:

An experimental solar power plant will be built in the
Australian desert.
 You want to be vague about who is responsible:

Mistakes were made.
 You are talking about a general truth:

Rules are made to be broken.

3. Form of the passive voice
 The form of the passive voice is:
 Verb to be + past participle

Ex: The house is cleaned by Peter.
 To change an active sentence to passive, you must have
a transitive verb.
 Interrogative, passive Did not Do never wears but Is /
Are, Was / Were

Ex: Is a police state being created by them?

4. Examples of passive voice
Verb tense
Structure
Example
Present Simple
am/are/is + pp*
The bike is stolen.
Past Simple
was/were + pp
The bike was stolen.
Present Perfect
have/has been + pp
The bike has been stolen.
Past Perfect Simple
had been + pp
The bike had been stolen.
Future with will
will be + pp
The car will have been stolen.
Going to future
am/are/is going to be + pp
The car is going to have been
stolen.
Must
must + be + pp
The bike must be stolen.
Can
can + be + pp
The bike can be stolen.
Should
should + be + pp
The bike should be stolen.
*PP: Past participle

5. Impersonal passive voice
Impersonal form
It is
Verb
believed.
reported.
said.
thought.
known.
supposed.
considered.
expected.
oThese forms are becoming more used.
Translation
Se cree.
Se informa.
Se dice.
Se piensa.
Se sabe.
Se supone.
Se considera.
Se espera.

6. Changes in the transformation of
active sentence passive.
 The direct object of the active sentence becomes the
subject of the passive sentence.

Ex: My mother buys the biscuits. (Active)
Direct object
Subject

Ex: The biscuits are bought by my mother. (Passive)
Subject
Direct object

7. Changes in pronouns
Subject pronouns
Complement pronouns
I
Me
You
You
He, she, it
Him, her, it.
We
Us
You
You
They
Them
oWhen you pass to an active sentence passive voice, we must take
into account the number of new subject with the verb.

8. Examples of active to passive
sentence
 He wrote the letter. (Active)
 The letter was written by him. (Passive)
 I bake a cake. (Active)
 The cake is baken by me. (Passive)
 My sister lost the keys. (Active)
 The keys were lost by my sister. (Passive)
 My brother will study the lesson. (Active)
 The lesson will be studied by my brother. (Pasive)
 Your dog has bitten the policeman. (Active)
 The policeman has been bitten by your dog. (Passive)