ENGLISH II CURSO DE INGLÉS COMO

1 M3-T1 “Passive voice in present ” LENGUA EXTRANJERA EN LÍNEA

Passive voice in present simple

Mexican Festivities

Mexico has many festivities which are unique to the country, including
Day of the Dead; it is known in Spanish as “Día de los Muertos”. Death
is celebrated with a sense of happiness, respect and humor. This
festivity is celebrated by few people in the world. There is a belief that
their ancestors come back to the world of the living for just a few hours
to enjoy a moment with their families and to receive gifts. This holiday
is commemorated on November 2nd each year.

If you notice some parts of the previous sentences are highlighted, these sentences are in
passive voice. This time we are going to learn about passive voice in present.

Let’s begin!

1 Function
In general, we tend to use the active voice, that is when a subject does an action to an object.
The passive voice is used when we want to emphasize the action (the verb) and the object of
a sentence rather than subject. This means that the subject is either less important than the
action itself or that we don’t know who or what the subject is.

Examples:

In active voice:

• During the Day of the Dead, people visit cemeteries.

• People clean and decorate the graves with cempasuchil flowers.

In passive voice:

• During the Day of the Dead, cemeteries are visited.

• The graves are cleaned and decorated with cempasuchil flowers.

UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE ZACATECAS “FRANCISCO GARCÍA SALINAS”

 ENGLISH II CURSO DE INGLÉS COMO
2 M3-T1 “Passive voice in present ” LENGUA EXTRANJERA EN LÍNEA

2 Structure
The form of the active voice is:

subject (doer of the action) + verb (the action) + object (receiver of the
action) + complement

Examples:

Mexicans prepare tamales on Christmas.

Children break piñatas during the “Posadas”

festivities.

Mexicans eat “Rosca de Reyes” on January 6th.

To form sentences in passive voice in affirmative, we need:

subject (it is the object in active voice) + auxiliary verb “be” in present +
verb in past participle + complement

Examples:

Tamales are prepared on Christmas.

Piñatas are broken during the “Posadas”

festivities.

“Rosca de Reyes” is eaten on January 6th.

When we also want to mention the person or people that do the action,
we use by. We can use object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them)
after by.

Examples:

Tamales are prepared by them on Christmas.

Piñatas are broken by children during the “Posadas” festivities.

“Rosca de Reyes” is eaten by Mexicans on January 6th.

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3 M3-T1 “Passive voice in present ” LENGUA EXTRANJERA EN LÍNEA

To construct negative sentences, we add the negative particle -not to the

auxiliary verb. It can be contracted too.

subject + auxiliary verb “be” in present + not + verb in past participle +

complement

Examples:
Oktoberfest is not / isn’t celebrated in Mexico.

Pozole is not / isn’t eaten in China.

“Pan de muerto” is not / isn’t sold in January.

Banks are not / aren’t opened on New Year’s Day in Mexico.

How to make questions?

Yes/ no questions
Auxiliary verb be in present + subject + past participle +
complement?
Information
Question word + auxiliary verb be in present + subject + past
participle + complement?
questions

Examples:

Is Oktoberfest celebrated in Mexico? No, it isn’t.

Are sugar skulls made of chocolate and sugar? Yes, they are.

When is the Mexican Independence Day commemorated?

It is commemorated on September 16th.

 ENGLISH II CURSO DE INGLÉS COMO
4 M3-T1 “Passive voice in present ” LENGUA EXTRANJERA EN LÍNEA

3 References
• Ginger Software. (s.f.) Passive voice. Available in
https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/verbs/passive-voice/
• English Hilfen (s.f.) Questions in Passive. Available in https://www.englisch-
hilfen.de/en/grammar/questions_passive.htm