UNIT 5 - PASSIVE

VOICE
PASSIVE VOICE
In the active voice, the subject of the sentence DOES the
action:
John painted the house last week.
Subject verb object

In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence receives

Theaction:
the house was by John last week
painted
Subject verb agent
PASSIVE VOICE -
STRUCTURE
The passive voice in present, past and future:

PRESENT am / is / are
PAST was / were + participle of the
main verb
FUTURE will be

Affirmative Subject + verb TO BE + past participle

: This dress is sold online (Este vestido se vende online)
This book was written by J.K. Rowling (Este libro fue escrito por
J.K. Rowling)
Negative: Subject + verb TO BE in negative + past participle
The house wasn’t painted (La casa no fue pintada)
A car will not be bought (El coche no será comprado)
Interrogati Verb TO BE + subject + past participle
ve: What is Picasso known for? (¿Por qué es conocido Picasso?)
Where are these products advertised? (¿Dónde se anuncian estos
PASSIVE VOICE -
STRUCTURE
In order to write the verb in the passive voice, we have to follow THREE
basic steps as I said to you in class:
1. IDENTIFY THE VERB TENSE OF THE ACTIVE SENTENCE.
In the sentence, Paul eats an orange, we can see that the verb is in the
present tense.
2. PUT THE VERB TO BE IN THIS VERBAL TENSE.
So, if we have a present tense in the active, we will have to write the
verb to be in present, for instance: An orange is …
3. FINALLY, WRITE THE PAST PARTICIPLE OF THE MAIN VERB.
From the verb eat, we have the past participle eaten. As a result, we
have the passive sentence: An orange is eaten by Paul.
PASSIVE VOICE - USE
The passive voice is used when:
- We do not know who did the action:
The documents were stolen
- The receiver of the action is more important:
The pyramids were built 5000 years ago by the Egyptians
REMEMBER
- Si el sujeto es un pronombre personal, se cambia por el pronombre
objeto correspondiente:
He bought a book from the online shop – A book was bought by him
from the online shop.
They eat hamburgers for dinner – Hamburgers are eaten by them for
dinner.

- Hay oraciones que tienen dos complementos, por lo que las podremos
hacer de dos formas diferentes. Si uno de los complementos es un
pronombre personal, se cambia por su correspondiente forma de sujeto
(primer ejemplo):
Paul gave me a mobile phone – I was given a mobile phone
Paul gave me a mobile phone – A mobile phone was given to me