2. Active vs. Passivevoice In active sentences, the thing or person doing the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing or person receiving the action is the object. e.g. The professor teaches the students. In passive sentences, the thing or person receiving the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing or person doing the action is optionally included near the end of the sentence. e.g.Thestudents are taught (bytheprof.)
4. Whento use thePassivevoice? The 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. e.g. My bike was stolen. In this example, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I don’t know, however, who did it, or I just simply don’t care about it.
5. Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows: e.g. A mistake was made. In this case, the focus is on the fact that a mistake was made, but I don’t blame anyone: e.g. You have made a mistake.
6. Important: Only a verb which can take an object, that is, a transitive verb, can be put into the Passive Voice.
7. Passivesentenceswithby- agent We are usually not interested in the "doer" of an action in a passive sentence. When we want to mention the "doer", we use the preposition by. The whole phrase is called by-agent in English. Tom built the house. The house was built by Tom.
8. When we do not know, who was the "doer" of the action, we use someone or somebody in the active sentence. We leave out these words in the passive sentence. My bike was stolen. Someone stole my bike.
10. Simple Present Active: Rita writes a letter. Passive: A letteriswrittenby Rita. Simple Past Active: Rita wrote a letter. Passive: A letterwaswrittenby Rita. PresentPerfect Active: Rita has written a letter. Passive: A letter has beenwrittenby Rita. Simple Future Active: Rita willwrite a letter. Passive: A letterwillbewrittenby Rita. Modal verbs Active: Rita can write a letter. Passive: A letter can bewrittenby Rita.
11. PresentProgressive Active: Rita iswriting a letter. Passive: A letterisbeingwrittenby Rita. PastProgressive Active: Rita waswriting a letter. Passive: A letterwasbeingwrittenby Rita. PastPerfect Active: Rita hadwritten a letter. Passive: A letterhadbeenwrittenby Rita. PerfectFuture Active: Rita willhavewritten a letter. Passive: A letterwillhavebeenwrittenby Rita. Conditional I Active: Rita wouldwrite a letter. Passive: A letterwouldbewrittenby Rita. Conditional II Active: Rita wouldhavewritten a letter. Passive: A letterwouldhavebeenwrittenby Rita.
12. Passivesentenceswith 2 objects The professor explained the exercise to the students Changing an active sentence with two objects into passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you want to put the focus on. The exercise was explained to the students. The students were explained the exercise.
13. Impersonal passive The phrase It is said ... is an impersonal passive construction. We often use it in news. (It is reported; It is said; It is known; It is supposed; It is considered; It is expected) Active: Everybody thinks Cathy works very hard. Passive 1: Cathy is thought to work very hard.Passive 2: It is thought that Cathy works very hard. Active: They believe Tom is wearing a white pullover.Passive 1: Tom is believed to be wearing a white pullover.Passive 2: It is believed that Tom is wearing a white pullover.
14. Have/ Getsth done Have something done and get something done are both used to refer to actions which are done for the subject rather than by the subject. The differences between have and get something done are that have is slightly more formal than get, and that get is more frequent than have in the imperative form.
15. Liz and Meg are having/are getting their hair dyed. Jake had/got his groceries delivered two hours ago. You should have/get your eyes checked. Jenny will have/get her ears pierced.
