1.
The passive voice is not a verbal tense, it is a
syntactic process and transformation that
affects the whole sentence. Here, the subject
of the sentence is not the performer of the
action but experiences or suffers it.
Eg. I stole a bag vs. I was a stolen a bag
DEFINITION. WHAT IS THE PASSIVE
VOICE?

2.
• The direct/indirect object becomes the subject:
WAS STOLEN/ WAS STOLEN A BAG
• The verb becomes passive (the same tense of to be followed by
the past participle of the main verb)
• The mayor awards a present= A present is awarded
• The mayor awarded a present= A present was awarded
• The subject, if it is important, becomes the Agent, (BY AGENT)
• The president gave my mother a medal
• My mother was given a medal by the president

3.
• In English, both direct and indirect object can become the SUBJECT in the
passive:
• MARY GAVE TOM A PRESENT
• In the following, the direct object becomes subject. The Indirect object
appears after the verb with the preposition TO. The agent is introduced
with BY
• A PRESENT WAS GIVEN TO TOM BY MARY
• In the following example, the indirect object is the subject. The verb must
concord with the new passive subject.
• TOM WAS GIVEN A PRESENT BY MARY
• Native speakers prefer the indirect object as subject, as it usually refers
to PEOPLE.

4.
• It is a way of changing word order in English and giving more
importance to some elements in the sentence. Important
elements usually appear a the beginning of the sentence:
• Eg. My grandmother was awarded a prize
• It is used when we don't know who the subject is or
the subject is very general and it is not important:
• Eg. JFK was killed ( by someone)
• Spanish impersonal and "SE" passives are translated as
passive voice in English
• English is spoken here (Se habla inglés)