PASSIVE VOICE

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PASSIVE AND ACTIVE VOICE:

ACTIVE VOICE: SUBJECT + VERB+ OD/I+ CCL/T...

My sister ate some salad yesterday

PASSIVE VOICE: SUBJECT(OD/I)+ VERB + BY-AGENT(subject) + CCL/T

Some salad was eaten by my sister yesterday

En la voz activa el sujeto es la persona que realiza la acción del

verbo(¿QUIÉN?). Sin embargo, en la voz pasiva el sujeto es el
objeto sobre el que recae la acción del verbo (¿QUÉ?). En la voz
pasiva el sujeto activo puede aparecer con la preposición “by”
conocido como el complemento agente o “by-agent”.
 PASSIVE VOICE _ USES
Do you know that Passive Voice is more used in English than in
Spanish?
When do we use PASSIVE VOICE in English?
●
When the subject is unknown/obvious/ irrelevant, etc
“my car will be fixed tomorrow” (by the mechanic)
“tea is grown in India” (by people, farmers)
“my pencil case has been stolen” (someone has taken it)
●
When you want to focus on the object of the action instead of
the person who did it.
“Guernica was painted by Picasso after Spanish Civil War”
 PASSIVE VOICE_ TYPES
● TYPE 1: SUBJECT + VERB + OD + …
STEPS TO TURN ACTIVE INTO PASSIVE
1. OD pasa a SUJETO de la pasiva
2. a) ponemos el verbo TO BE (auxiliar) en el mismo tiempo verbal que esté el
verbo principal de la activa
2. b) ponemos el verbo principal de la activa en participio de pasado (“ed” o 3ª
columna de los verbos irregulares)

3. ponemos el SUJETO de la activa como complemento agente (BY-AGENT) *

4. ponemos el resto de complementos que queden en la frase (CCL, CCT, etc)
Example: Peter wrote an interesting article for the school magazine.
An interesting article was written by Peter for the school magazine.
PASSIVE VOICE_ TENSE CHANGES
 BY-AGENT
● BY-AGENT IS COMPULSORY WHEN...
1) It refers to a proper name or to a specific person.
“Hamlet was written by Shakespeare around 1600”
“This blanket was made by my sister last year”

2) It gives you relevant or important information

“ I was helped by a neighbour last Tuesday”

● BY-AGENT IS NOT USED WHEN...

1) It refers to a obvious, unknown or irrelevant subject (common nouns)
“The exam will be done by students next Tuesday.”

2) When the subject is one of the following words: pronoun, people,

somebody, etc
“A lot of rice is eaten by people in Asia”
 PASSIVE VOICE_TYPES
● TYPE 2: SUBJECT+ VERB+ [OD+ OI ]+ …
Tom bought a present to me for my birthday
Tom bought me a present for my birthday

● En inglés es más común pasar el OI a sujeto

paciente que el OD.
I was bought a present by Tom for my birthday (more common)
A present was bought to me by Tom for my birthday (less common)

[cuidado con el cambio en los pronombres personales de objeto a

sujeto! me-I, him-he, her-she, us-we, them-they ]
 PASSIVE VOICE_TYPES
● TYPE 3: PASSIVE VOICE WITH REPORTED VERBS
[calculate, claim, consider, discover, estimate, expect, feel, hope, know, prove, report,
say, show, think, understand, etc.]
● Sometimes when you are reporting what people say or believe, you don ́t
know, or you don ́t want to say, who exactly the “people” are. So you use an
impersonal construction: “People believe that Sally is a millionaire”
● The same idea can be expressed by using the passive in two different ways:
1) It + passive of reporting verb + that + clause
“It is believed that Sally is a millionaire”
2) subject OF SUB.CLAUSE + passive of reporting verb + `to ́ infinitive (VERB OF
SUB.CLAUSE) + rest of sub. Clause complements
“Sally is believed to be a millionaire”
● TYPE 3: PASSIVE VOICE WITH REPORTED VERBS
IMPORTANT!!
● IF THE VERB IN THE SUBORDINATE CLAUSE IS IN PRESENT OR
FUTURE TENSE YOU HAVE TO USE THE SIMPLE to-INFINITIVE.
People say that my brother has a new girlfriend.
My brother is said to have a new girlfriend

● IF THE VERB IN THE SUBORDINATE CLAUSE IS IN PAST TENSE, YOU

HAVE TO USE THE PERFECT to-INFINITIVE. (TO HAVE +PARTICIPLE)
People say that my brother broke up with his girlfriend last week.
My brother is said to have broken up with his girlfriend last week.
 Causative Passive [have/get+something+done]*
TYPE 1

● We use a causative verb when we want to talk about something that someone else did for us or for another
person. It means that the subject caused the action to happen, but didn't do it themselves. Maybe they paid,
or asked, or persuaded the other person to do it. For example, we can say:

I cleaned my house. (This means I cleaned it myself). I paid someone to clean it, of course I can say: A cleaner cleaned my
house.

● But, another way is to use a causative construction. So I can also say:

I had my house cleaned.

● In a sense, using a causative verb is similar to using a passive. The important thing is that the house is now
clean. We don't focus on who did the cleaning.

Have + object + past participle (have something done)

● We usually use 'have something done' when we are talking about paying someone to do something for us.
It's often used for services. The form is 'subject + have + object + past participle'.

I had my car washed. // John will have his house painted.

● Get + object + past participle (get something done)

We can also use 'subject + get + object + past participle'. This has the same meaning as 'have', but it is less
formal.

The students get their essays checked. // I'll get my hair cut next week. // He got his washing machine fixed.
*Source: http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/causatives-have-get.html