We use the passive voice to change the focus of the sentence.

Reasons for using the passive:

 When we are more interested in the action that the person or thing that carries it out.

 When the agent (the person who does the action) is unknown, unimportant or obvious from the context.

 When we want to describe general feelings, opinions and beliefs.

 When we want to put emphasis on the agent but only when it is a specific or important person, or when it
is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

How do you make a sentence using passive voice?

 First, we have to see the active voice to understand the passive voice.

My mum cleans the windows (Active)

Subject + verb + object

 This is how we normally speak and the sentence follows the correct sentence order.

 In passive voice, you take the object and turn it into the subject of the sentence.

My mum cleans the windows (Active)

object

Windows are cleaned (by my mum) (Passive)

Subject

Structure:

Subject + to be + verb past participle + by (optional)

Windows are cleaned (by my mum)

Steps to turn an active sentence into a passive sentence:
Step 1:
 Identify the subject, the verb and the object of the active sentence.

Step 2:
 Move the object to become the new subject of the sentence.

Step 3:
 You have to check what the verb tense is in the active sentence. In this case, we know it’s present
simple because we have the verb ending in S.

Step 4:
 Conjugate the verb ‘be’. In this case, if the main verb in the active sentence was in the present
(CLEANS), then the verb to ‘be’ should also be IN THE PRESENT. (am, is are)

My mum cleans the windows (Active)

object

Windows are

Subject
Step 5:
 Add the past participle of the main verb after ‘be’.
Step 6:
 You need to decide what to do with the subject of the active sentence. If you want to say who did the
action, you introduce it by adding the word BY.

 Be careful! In the passive

voice you don’t have always include the thing that is doing the action because:

 You don’t who did it,

 It’s not important, or

 It’s obvious from the context.