Revision of Perfect forms of Passive

—   Hello, dear friends. My name is James Wilson. This is Martin Green.

—   We are glad to welcome you on our lesson.

—   Our friend Nathaniel is also with us today.

—   Yesterday we decided to go shopping.

—   Martin, James and I wanted to go to the mall by bus. That’s why we went to the bus stop.

—   When we got on the bus, we saw a boy and his grandad.

—   They were having a heated discussion. Let’s listen to it.

—   Grandpa, stop yelling at me. You’re wrong in this situation!

—   No, Bobby. I’m right. And you need to learn the rules better!

—   Stop it! I know everything. And you are just too old.

—   I may be old, but I'm not insane. And my memory is great.

—   Yeah, right!

—   Martin and I decided not to interfere in this conversation, but Nathaniel decided otherwise.

—   He came to them to ask what’s wrong.

—   Excuse me! I’m sorry to interfere in your conversation, but my friends and I make lessons for pupils. Can I offer you our help?

—   Oh, I don’t know. It's so sudden. How can you help us?

—   Well… We can explain the rule to you.

—   Oh, OK. My grandson and I were talking about the passive voice.

—   I said: “I have just informed about the winter holidays”. According to my grandpa’s words, I needed to say: “I have just been informed about the holidays”.

—   I’m sure that I’m right!

—   No, grandpa! You aren’t.

—   Oh, I see. Let me invite both of you to our place tomorrow. My friends and I will explain everything to you.

—   Thank you. We’ll come with a great pleasure.

Today in the lesson we will:

·        Revise the difference between active and passive voice;

And

·        Revise the formation of the Present Perfect Passive and Past Perfect Passive.

—   Hello, gentlemen!

—   Hello! We’re glad to see you.

—   Let’s start our lesson.

—   First of all, let’s revise the difference between active and passive voice.

The active voice describes the sentences where the subject performs the action stated by the verb. The construction of such sentences is easy to read.

Let’s look at the example.

Jessica washes the dishes every day.

(In this sentence “Jessica” is a subject that tells us about the person who performs the action. “Washes” is a verb in the Present Simple Tense. It describes the action, which is completed by Jessica. “The dishes” is an object).

The passive voice describes the sentences where the subject is acted upon by the verb. We use this voice when we want to focus on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action.

Let’s rewrite the first example in the passive voice.

The dishes are washed by Jessica every day.

(In this sentence “the dishes” is the object, not the subject of the sentence. The dishes are not doing an action. “Are washed” is a verb in the passive voice. “By Jessica” describes the person who does the action).

If we want to mention the person who does the action, we can use the preposition by.

For instance:

The mouse was caught by the cat.

The cakes are made by my sister.

The scarf will be bought by Emma.

The fridge was fixed by Robert.

—   We told you about the difference between active and passive voice.

—   Today we will also tell you how to form the sentences in the Present and Past Perfect Passive.

—   Let’s start with Present Perfect Passive.

To form positive sentences, we put the subject in first place, then we put: have or has. After that we put the word been. And then we put the past participle of the main verb.

If the verb is regular, we add the ending -ed, for example: The films have been watched. The music has been played.

If the verb is irregular, we use the third form of this verb, for example: The book has been written. The songs have been sung.  

To form negative sentences, we put the subject in first place, then we put have or has plus not, the short forms are: haven’t or hasn’t. Then we put been. After that we put the past participle of the main verb.

For example, if the verbs are regular, we’ll have:

The films haven’t been watched. The music hasn’t been played.

If the verbs are irregular, we’ll have:

The book hasn’t been written. The songs haven’t been sung.  

To form questions, we put have or has in first place, the subject — in second place. Then we put been. After that we put the past participle of the main verb.

For example:

If the verbs are regular, we’ll have:

Have the films been watched? Has the music been played?

And if the verbs are irregular, we’ll have:

Has the book been written? Have the songs been sung?

Let’s look at the example:

—   Aidan, has your dad’s house been sold?

—   No, Antonio, it hasn’t been sold yet.

—   Oh, that’s great! I would like to buy it. Could you tell your dad about this, please?

—   Sure, I’ll tell him. But the garage has already been sold.

—   Oh, it’s okay. I don’t need the garage. I would like to buy only the house.

—   Okay, I’ll give you a call when I ask him.

—   Great! Thank you.

—   Now you know how to form the sentences in the Present Perfect Passive.

—   Let’s discuss how to form them in the Past Perfect Passive.

To form positive sentences, we put the subject in first place, then we put had. After that we put the word been. And then we put the past participle of the main verb.

If the verb is regular, we add the ending -ed, for example: The films had been watched. The music had been played.

If the verb is irregular, we use the third form of this verb, for example: The book had been written. The songs had been sung.  

To form negative sentences, we put the subject in first place, then we put had plus not, the short form is hadn’t. Then we put been. After that we put the past participle of the main verb.

For example, if the verbs are regular, we’ll have:

The films hadn’t been watched. The music hadn’t been played.

If the verbs are irregular, we’ll have:

The book hadn’t been written. The songs hadn’t been sung.  

To form questions, we put had in first place, the subject — in second place. Then we put been. After that we put the past participle of the main verb.

For example:

If the verbs are regular, we’ll have:

Had the films been watched? Had the music been played?

And if the verbs are irregular, we’ll have:

Had the book been written? Had the songs been sung?

Let’s look at the example:

—   Jason, had the letters been posted by 6 р.m.?

—   No, Mr. Harris, they hadn’t been posted by 6 p.m.

—   When had the letters been posted then?

—   They had been posted by 9 p.m.

—   What? Next time if you don’t do everything on time, I will fire you!

—   I’m sorry, Mr. Harris. I promise it will never happen again.

—   Did you understand how to form the sentences in the Past Perfect Passive?

—   Yes, we did!

—   Now let’s put the knowledge into a practice.

Turn the underlined sentences into passive structures.

1. The dog looks hungry. I’m not sure that Lucy has fed it.

Check yourselves.

I’m not sure that it has been fed by Lucy.

2. Kate’s scarf is so nice. I know that her sister has knitted it.

Check yourselves.

I know that it has been knitted by her sister.

3. The mirrors look so dirty. Lily hasn’t cleaned them.

Check yourselves.

They haven’t been cleaned by Lily.

4. We’ll go to the party soon. Jenna has ordered a taxi for us.

Check yourselves.

A taxi has been ordered for us by Jenna.

5. The museum looks so beautiful. The workers have already built it.

Check yourselves.

It has already been built by the workers.

6. The plates are dirty. Marry hasn’t washed them yet.

Check yourselves.

They haven’t been washed by Marry yet.

Now meet Michelle, please. She came to her town after 8 years’ absence. Help her to say what she saw using passive structures.

For example: She saw that…

a)     they had built lots of cafes.

The right variant is:

She saw that lots of cafes had been built.

b)  they had rebuilt the old bus station.

c)   they had closed the old grocery store.

d)  they had opened a new cinema.

Let’s check.

b) She saw that the old bus station had been rebuilt.

c) She saw that the old grocery store had been closed.

d) She saw that a new cinema had been opened.

The following sentences:

e)   they had changed the name of the bakery.

f)    they had built two swimming pools.

g)  they had brought a tiger to the local zoo.

h)  they had destroyed the main bridge.

Check yourselves.

e) She saw that the name of the bakery had been changed.

f) She saw that two swimming pools had been built.

g) She saw that a tiger had been brought to the local zoo.

h) She saw that the main bridge had been destroyed.

—   Thank you, gentlemen. Your information was very useful and interesting!

—   Yeah! I agree with my grandad. And I wanted to apologize for my behavior yesterday. Grandpa, I’m really sorry that I called you old.

—   Oh, Bobby, but it’s true. I’m very old.

—   Maybe, but you are also very smart.

—   All right, Bobby! I accept your apologies.

—   Thank you very much, sirs. You helped me to understand that I was wrong.

—   You’re welcome, Bobby!

—   That’s all for today, boys and girls!

—   We hope you liked the lesson.

—   See you soon, our dear friends!