THE PASSIVE

We form the passive with the verb to be in the appropriate tense and the

past participle of the main verb. Only transitive verbs (verbs which take an

object) can be used in the passive.

Changing from the active to the passive:

- the object of the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive

sentence.

- the active verb remains in the same tense but changes into the passive form.

- the subject of the active sentence becomes the agent, and is either

introduced with the preposition by or is omitted.

ACTIVE The gardener was watering the plants.

Subject verb Object

PASSIVE The plants were being watered by the gardener.

Subject verb Agent
 THE PASSIVE
We use the passive:

- when the person or people who do the action are unknown, unimportant or

obvious from the context.

e.g.: The film was made in 1903.

e.g.: Passports must be presented at the border crossing.

- when the action itself is more important than the person/people who do it,

as in news headlines, newspaper articles, formal notices, advertisements,

instructions, processes, etc.

e.g.: Violators will be heavily fined.

e.g.: Organised crime boss arrested.

- when we want to avoid taking responsibility for an action or when we refer

to an unpleasant event and we do not want to say who or what is to blame.

e.g.: Mistakes were made in the final copy.

e.g.: The original documents have been misplaced.

 THE PASSIVE
Changes in the passive:

a. Only transitive verbs can be changed into the passive.

e.g.: I slept well last night – Last night was well slept.

NOTE: some transitive verbs (have, be, exist, seem, fit, suit, resemble,

lack, etc) cannot be changed into the passive.

e.g.: I have a chronic back problem – A chronic back problem is had

by me.

b. With verbs which can take two objects such as bring, tell, send, show,

teach, promise, buy, etc, we can form two different passive sentences.
e.g.: My employer promised me a pay rise. (active)

I was promised a pay rise by my employer. (passive, more usual)

A pay rise was promised to me by my employer. (passive, less
usual)
 THE PASSIVE

c. By + the agent is used to say who or what carries out an action. With +

instrument/material/ingredient is used to say what the agent used.

e.g.: The Cup was won by Argentina.

e.g.: The steak was sprinkled with some pepper.

d. The agent can be omitted when the subject is they, he, someone/

somebody, people, one, etc.

e.g.: Nobody found the answer. = The answer was not found.

e. The agent is not omitted when it is a specific or important person, or when

it is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

e.g.: The novel was written by Toni Morrison.

 THE PASSIVE

f. When we want to find out who or what perfomed an action, the passive

question form is Who/What … by ?

e.g.: What was the ulcer caused by?

g. To ask questions in the passive we follow the same rules as for statements,

keeping in mind that the verb is in the interrogative form.

e.g.: Have you booked your appointment? = Has your appointment

been booked?

h. If in an active sentence a preposition follows a verb, then in the passive it

is placed immediately after the verb.

e.g.: The tide washed the sandcastle away. = The sandcastle was

washed away by the tide.

 THE PASSIVE

i. We can use the verb to get instead of to be in everyday speech when we

talk about things that happen by accident or unexpectedly.

e.g.: He got promoted after a 4 hour meeting.

j. The verbs hear, help, see and make are followed by the bare infinitive in

the active but by the to-infinitive in the passive.

e.g.: The police officer made the driver move her car = The driver was

made to move her car.

k. Let becomes be allowed to in the passive.

e.g.: Betty let the children stay up past midnight. = The children were

allowed to stay up past midnight.

 THE PASSIVE
CAUSATIVE FORM

- We use have + object + past participle to say that we have arranged

for someone to do something for us. The past participle has a passive

meaning.

e.g.: Leo had his hair dyed. (he didn't dye it himself.

- Questions and negations of the verb have are formed with do/does

(present simple) or did (past simple).

e.g.: Did you have the computer repaired yesterday?

- We also use have something done to talk about an unpleasant experience

that somebody had.

e.g.: Las night she had her passport stolen.

- We can use the verb get instead of have in informal conversation.