PAULINA ISABEL FLORES CASTILLEJOS

INGLES B-1
5TO. SEMESTRE GRUPO “B”

What do we mean by "voice"?

The voice is the form of the verb that shows whether the subject of a sentence
performs the action (= the active voice) or is affected by it (= the passive voice).
So far we have spoken of the active voice where we focus the action of the verb on
the subject. But when we want to give more importance to the action and not to
who has done it, we use the passive voice.
Examples:
- In the sentence "James hit the ball", the verb "hit" is in the active voice. In other
words, the "hit" form shows that the subject (James) did the action. The sentence
"James hit the ball" is an active sentence.
- In the sentence "The ball was hit by James", the verb "was hit" is in the passive
voice. In other words, the "was hit" form shows that the subject (The ball) was
affected by the action. The sentence "The ball was hit by James" is a passive
sentence.
Grammatical Rules
The passive voice is formed with the auxiliary verb "to be" and the past participle of
the verb.

Subject + auxiliary verb (to be) + past participle...

Examples:
The speech is written for the president. (El discurso está escrito para el
presidente.)
The house was built in 1975. (La casa fue construida en 1975.)
My wallet has been stolen. (Ha sido robada mi cartera.)
The room will be cleaned while we are out. (Se limpiará la habitación mientras
estemos fuera.)
To transform an active sentence to passive we consider the following points:
1. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive.
2. The main verb is replaced by the auxiliary "to be", in its same time, next to the
main verb in participle.
3. The subject of the main sentence becomes the complement agent of the
passive.
4. If we mention in the sentence of the subject who performs the action (agent
subject), this will normally precede by the preposition "by"
Examples:
The active voice:
Mark Twain wrote the book. (Mark Twain escribió el libro.)
The passive voice:
The book was written by Mark Twain. (El libro fue escrito por Mark Twain.)
The active voice:
The housekeeper will clean the room. (La ama de casa limpiará la habitación.)
The passive voice:
The room will be cleaned by the housekeeper. (La habitación será limpiada por la
ama de casa.)
USES
1. We use the passive voice when we do not know who has done the action.
Examples:
- A civilian has been killed. A civilian has been killed.
- The car was stolen. The car was stolen.
2. We use the passive voice when we want to give more importance to what
happened, who did the action or when we do not want to say who did it.
Examples:
-The letter was delivered yesterday. (The letter was delivered yesterday.)
- A mistake was made. (An error was committed.)
Note: We can not use the passive voice with intransitive verbs like "die", "arrive" or
"go". Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not carry a direct object.