Passive Voice. Правило

The Passive Voice

is used:

when the agent is

to make more

when the action

is more important

than the agent,

as in process,

events, reports,

instructions etc.

unknown ,

unimportant or

obvious from

polite or formal

the context

statements

The passive is formed with the appropriate tense of the verb

to be + past participle

Simple

Present

Past

Am / is / are

+

Part. II

Continuous

Future

was / were

+

Part. II

am / is / are

being

+ Part. II

Perfect

have / has

been

+ Part. II

was / were

being

+ Part. II

will be

+

Part. II

Future in the past

had been

+

Part. II

would/should

be

+ Part. II

will have

been

+ Part. II

would/should

have been

+ Part. II

PREsENT sIMPLE

Am / is / are + Part. II

• Active: Mary cleans this room every day.
• Passive: This room is cleaned every day.

PReSENT CONTinUouS

Am / is / are being + Part. II

• Active: The farmer is building a new barn.
• Passive: A new barn is being built by the farmer.

PRESENt PERFECT

Have / has been + Part. II

• Active: The gardener has planted some trees.
• Passive: Some trees have been planted by the gardener.

Past simple

Was / were + Part. II

• Active: My friend sent me an invitation.
• Passive: I was sent an invitation.

Past continuous

Was / were being + Part. II

• Active: He was delivering the letters.
• Passive: The letters were being delivered .

Past perfect

Had been + Part. II

• Active: Someone had broken our door down.
• Passive: Our door had been broken .

Future simple

Will be + Part. II

• Active: A famous designer will redecorate the hotel.
• Passive: The hotel will be redecorated by a famous designer.

Future simple in the past

Would / should be + Part. II

• Active: You should water this plant daily.
• Passive: This plant should be watered daily.

infinitive

To be + Part. II

• Active: I have to return these books to the library.
• Passive: These books have to be returned to the library.

modal verbs

After modal verbs ( will, can, must, have to, should, may, ought to ) we use

be + Part. II .

• Active: People must obey the law.
• Passive: The law must be obeyed .

Changing from Active into Passive

The object of the active verb becomes the subject in the new sentence. The active verb changes into a passive form and the subject of the active verb becomes the agent. The agent is introduced with by or it is omitted.

Active

Subject

Passive

Verb

Picasso

Object

painted

That picture

(agent)

that picture.

was painted

by Picasso.

Changing from Active into Passive

We put the agent (= the person who does the action) into if it adds information. When the agent is unknown, unimportant or obvious it is omitted. Agent such as people (in general), they , somebody etc. are omitted.

• Somebody murdered him. He was murdered. (Unknown agent is omitted.)
• The police arrested him. He was arrested. (Obvious agent is omitted.)
• Bell invented the telephone. The telephone was invented by Bell . (The agent is not omitted because it adds information. )

Passive verbs with two objects

• Some verbs can have two objects. For example, give :

Somebody gave [the police] [the information] .

So it is possible to make two passive sentences:

The police were given the information. or

The information was given to the police.

• Other verbs which can have two objects are:

ask offer pay show teach tell

When we use these verbs in the passive, most often we begin with the person .

I don’t like being…

The passive of doing / seeing etc. is being done / being seen etc. Compare:

active: I don’t like people telling me what to

do.

passive: I don’t like being told what to do.

Steve hates being kept waiting. (= he hates people keeping him waiting)

We managed to climb over the wall without being seen . (= without anybody seeing us)

Get

• You can use get instead of be in the passive:

I don’t often get invited to parties. (= I’ m not often invited)

I’m surprised Liz didn’t get offered the job. (= Liz wasn’t offered the job)

• You can use get only when things happen.

Jill is liked by everybody. (not gets liked – this is not a “happening”)

• We use get mainly in informal spoken English. You can use be in all situations.
• We also use get in the following expressions (which are not passive in meaning):

• get married, get divorced

get lost (=not know where you are)

get dressed (=put on your clothes)

get changed (=change your clothes)