PASSIVE VOICE

Form of Passive

The main structure of a sentence in the passive is as follows:

Object + To Be + Past Participle

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

a) the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
b) the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
c) the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is
dropped)

Having 2 objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject
and the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on
what you want to put the focus on.
e.g. Rita wrote a letter to me - A letter was written to me by Rita or I was written a letter by
Rita.

Personal Passive means that the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the
passive sentence. So every transitive verb (verbs that need an object) can form a personal
passive.
e.g. They build houses. Houses are built.

Impersonal Passive is formed with intransitive verbs (verb that dont have an object).
e.g. he says it is said

Verbs followed by object + complement have one passive form.

e.g. They nominated him Best Actor for 2015 He was nominated Best Actor for 2015

Verbs followed by object + bare infinitive are followed by a to-infinitive in passive

e.g. They have made him return the money He has been made to return the money

Verbs followed by object + -ing are followed by be + past participle + -ing in passive.
e.g. They saw him eating pizza He was seen eating pizza

Verbs followed by object + to infinitive are followed by be + past participle + -ing in

passive
e.g. I have taught Peter to swing for years Peter has been taught to swim for years

Some verbs followed by object + to infinitive have no passive (bear, hate, love, need,
prefer, want, wish).
Verbs followed by to infinitive + object are followed by to be + past participle in passive

e.g. Supermarkets started to sell clothes Clothes started to be sold by supermarkets

When to use the Passive Voice

The Passive Voice is used in English when the action/result is more important than the person or
thing that is performing the action.

1. It is used when the person/thing performing the action (agent):

- is not known
- is not important
- is obvious
- is people in general
e.g. Our car was stolen last night.
2. It is used to describe factual information, especially when describing a process.
e.g. The lasagna is baked in an oven for 35 minutes at 250 degrees Celsius.
3. It is used in news reports and to give instructions.
e.g. Five people were arrested at a nightclub last night.
4. It is used when we want to put long subjects at the end of a sentence.
e.g. I was surprised by Devs decision to give up his job and move to Sydney.

While it is possible to use this structure in a large variety of tenses in English, it is rare to use the
passive in Future Continuous, Present Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous or Future
Perfect Continuous tenses.