6.

Active and Passive Voice

6.1. Active

The subject of an active-voice sentence is a person or thing doing the action that the
verb expresses:
The postman delivers letters everyday.

6.2. Passive

The subject of such a sentence is the person or thing that is acted on by the verb. The
passive voice is used when it is not important who carries out the action expressed by the
verb or it is not important to know.

Letters are delivered everyday.

6.2.1. Forms of the passive
◊ be + the Past Participle of the main verb. The form of the auxiliary verb be
indicates the tense:
They sell fish in the market.
Fish is sold in the market.
They sold fresh fish in the market.
Fresh fish was sold in the market.
◊ the impersonal passive it + passive
It is rumored that he left the country.
◊ The passive with get - is replaced by get to express an action that has just
happened or that is done to the subject - get dressed, get washed, get lost:
His dog got lost yesterday.
◊ The long (to) infinitive is used:
◦ after an adjective of quality such as small, tall, agreeable, pleasant,
funny that is used in combination with:
◦ too + adjective of quality:
The weather was still too stormy to leave for the mountain.
◦ not + adjective of quality + enough:
Mother is not old enough to retire.
◦ after adjectives of emotion such as: angry, happy, glad, sad, sorry,
surprised
He was glad to see me but sorry to hear the bad news.
◦ after an adjective such as: good, nice, silly, wrong (sometimes + of +
another noun phrase)
It is so kind of you to invite me to your wedding party.
◦ after a WH-word: how, what, where, whether, which, who, whom
We had no idea which way to take.
 ◦ after a noun phrase such as: a good idea, a good thing, a mistake, (or
for + a noun phrase) etc
It was a mistake for us to buy that house.
It was a good idea to have some fun together.
◦ after an adjective such as easy, difficult, hard, impossible + for + noun
phrase
It is difficult for me to understand your behavior.
◦ after a verb followed by for, e.g. ask, wait + for + noun phrase
We are waiting for you to decide.
◊ The particle to can be used:
◦ without the verb when the whole verb form is used in a previous sentence.
Did you see that film? No, I intended to, but I didn't.
◦ to can be used to express purpose or necessity after a verb followed by a
pronoun or a noun:
I looked for her to talk to her.
It is time to leave.
Exercises:

I. Tick the passive sentences to make the difference between active and passive
ones.
1. Written confirmations of all transactions are being sent to the customers.
2. The request of a broker for additional money is called a margin call.
3. They designed the floor for futures trading.
4. Electronic wall boards have been located on the trading floor.
5. The goods are listed on the board by their maturity or delivery time.
6. The final column indicates the number of contracts that have not yet been offset by the
delivery of the commodity.
7. The International Chamber of Commerce designed specific rules and regulations for
international trading.
8. The holders of commodities accounts are required to deposit margins with the brokers.
9. The Commodity Market protects the financial interests of all market participants.
10. Commodity Exchange members are being assisted in complying with the rules and
regulations.

II. Turn the following main passive sentences into active ones.
1. Informational brochures have been translated into foreign languages.
2. Reservations are required for groups of more than 10.
3. Although used by the pre-Columbian Indians, platinum was discovered in South America in
the early 18th century during the search for gold and silver.
4. The contracts are standardized by quality and quantity and therefore they are liquid
financial instruments.
5. The price at which an option is bought or sold is called a premium.
6. For centuries gold has been collected for its unique blend of rarity, beauty, and near
indestructibility.
7. Today, gold is sought as a critical industrial commodity.
8. Areas of the seabed have recently been identified as potentially valuable gold mining sites.
9. In the Great Depression of the 1930's most nations were forced to sever their currency
from gold in an attempt to stabilize their economies.
10. In the early 20th century new mining and smelting techniques were developed which made
possible to process lower-grade ones.

III. Rewrite the sentences using the passive form where possible. Cross the
sentences that cannot be transformed because of the intransitive verb.
1. Most of the group agreed with the suggestion that the visit to the monastery should be
cancelled.
2. The interest rates went up last month
3. House keeping tends to be a department that is forgotten about.
4. The Japanese families will house the group of students.
5. Can you phone immediately the chalet becomes vacant?
6. Each bedroom has a kettle, teabags and packets of instant coffee.
7. Friday night is karaoke night in our local pub.
8. How much do you pay them per hour?
9. You have to pay a deposit in advance when buying a made-to measure suit.
10. There are a large number of different forms of pasta and they form a basic part of Italian
cooking.

IV. Change the verbs in these sentences into their passive equivalents, and make
whatever other changes are necessary:
Example: They have proposed him for the Nobel Prize.
Answer: He has been proposed for the Nobel Prize.
Example: The Commission alleges that the internal audit missled the authorities.
Answer: The internal audit is alleged (by the Commission) to have missled the authorities.
Note: impersonal construction to be avoided: It is alleged by the Commission that the internal
audit missled the authorities.
1. The forwarding company delivered the parcels. Now we have to collect them.
2. The company says that the production figures have fallen short of expectations.
3. The authorities have given the company two weeks to surrender any accounting documents
they may possesses.
4. Many specialists consider that advertisment pushes sales figures , never mind what the
others believe.
5. The Prime Minister is to visit the new factory tomorrow.
6. My partners believes that kind of business is worth doing.
7. Didn't anyone tell you that we cannot deliver the goods until we produce their a Certificate
of Origin?
8. The inquiry found that the false information had been issued by the company itself.
9. They will have to cut off prices before the season starts.
10. The authorities are going to isolate the factory because of the atomic leak.
11. The newspapers report that the third generation of mobile phones is on its way to the
market.
12. I hate people saying how to behave with my employees.
13. Evidence shows that the director anticipated the decision the Board will take at the next
meeting.
14. Are you really going to show me the entire production process?
15. They say the bank is raising the interest rates.
V. Turn the following text to passive where possible; make all the necessary changes
An urgent knock interrupted Hal's thoughts. "Come in", he answered wearily. Kell
Dowd, the company's head of marketing, stomped into his office. "Dis you read about
Vanguard?" she asked. "They've done it again – and insulted us in the process. How asre they
getting these products out so fast?"
 "Well, they're not exactly technological break throughs, " Hal smiled wryly. "But
Vanguard does seem to have a finger on the pulse of the consumer. They're doing what we
should be doing. It seems we've dropped the ball"
(Harvard Business Review, August, 2002)