Vs.

We use passive voice when we want to focus on THE OBJECT of the sentence and not on THE
SUBJECT, because its not important or it is unknown. On the contrary, the active voice
focuses in THE SUBJECT and not THE OBJECT. In the active voice you know exactly who
performs the action of the verb.
Example:

ACTIVE VOICE:
The animals

o
o

drink

Subj
Mai
ect
n
Who drinks the milk? THE animals
ver
What they take? THE MILK

the milk

Obje
ct
subject
object

in the kitchen.

The rest of the

sentence

PASSIVE VOICE:
The Milk

is drunk
Verb to
be

in the kitchen
The rest of the
sentence

by the animals

Subj
ect

Particip
le of
the
main
The passive voice in the present is formed with the present tense of the VERB TO
BE and THE PAST PARTICIPLE of the main verb.
STEPS FOR PASSING AN ACTIVE VOICE SENTENCE TO A PASSIVE VOICE
SENTENCE:
Find the object of the sentence by asking what
+verb of the sentence.
Place the object as a subject in the sentence.
Find the verb to be and places it after the object (it
depends if the object is plural or singular (am- isare)) and when it is in past (was (singular)- were
(plural))
After the verb write the participle of the main verb.
Finally, add the complement of the sentence.

IN SUMMARY:
ACTIVE VOICE TO PASSIVE
VOICE
The chef
potatoes

washes

the

The potatoes
the chef

are washed

FORM: SUBJECT + VERB TO BE + PAST PARTICIPLE + AGENT (by)

Verb tense

To be

Past Participle

Present simple

Is/are/am

done

Present continuous

Is/are/am + being

written

Past simple

Was/were

eaten

Past continuous

Was/were + being

drunk

Present perfect

Has/have

read

Past perfect

Had been

watched

Will

be

bought

Going to

be

sent

Must

be

cleaned

Should

be

made

been

by