THE PASSIVE VOICE

Active

Passive

Present Continuous : The cleaning lady is brushing the floors now.

Simple Present: Millions of people speak English all over the world.
Where do people grow rice?
The French make Renault cars.
Present Perfect: Somebody has robbed me.
Has the mechanic repaired your car yet?
Past Simple:

Somebody stole my car last night.

My mother watered the plants last night
How did he break the window?

Past Continuous: When I was younger, the radios were playing Duran Duran's songs.
Modals:

Mr Ginger will rule the company.

Passengers cannot use their cell phones on the plane
The police should / must ban driving in city centres
The school may/might give her a scholarship for her success.

It + Passive
We use the passive phrases such as
It is said / accepted / assumed / believed / claimed / considered / denied / expected / felt / presumed /
realized / stated / thought / understood, etc. that ..
Instead of Everyone says that or People say that ..
Exercise: Rewrite the following sentences in the passive beginning with it ..that.
1. People know that too much noise causes headache and hearing problems.
.
2. After the election, people naturally thought that the winning party would keep its p-election
promises.
..
3. Some people report that Osama bin Ladin is hiding in Afghanistan.

4. Everyone expects that some sort of life exists on Mars.

..
The Use of Passive Voice
We choose the active or passive depending on what we are more interested in.
Bill Gates founded The Microsoft in the 1980s. (We are more interested in Bill Gates)
The Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates. (We are more interested in The Microsoft.)
GRAMMAR

 Use passive when you don't know who did the action or the doer of the action isn't important.
My car was stolen.
GRAMMAR QUIZ INTERMEDIATE UNITS 3
Name: _____________________
Date: ______________________
THE PASSIVE VOICE
A) Make the following sentences passive.
1. The cleaning lady is cleaning the floors now.
2. Millions of people speak English all over the world.
3. Where do people grow rice?
4. The French make Renault cars.
5. Somebody has robbed me.
6. Has the mechanic repaired our car yet?
7 Somebody stole my car last night.
8. My mother watered the plants last night.
9. How did he break the window?
10. When I was younger, radio stations were always playing Duran Duran's songs.
11. Mr Ginger will control the company.
12. Passengers cannot use their cell phones on the plane
13. The government should / must ban driving in city centres
14. The school may/might give her a scholarship because of her academic
success.

GRAMMAR

B) Read the texts and put the verbs in the correct tense and use either active or
passive to fit the meaning of the text.
COCA COLA
Coca-Cola 1 _______________ (enjoy) all over the world. 1.6 billion gallons 2
_______________ (sell) every year in 160 countries. The drink 3 _______________
(invent) by Dr John Pamberton in Atlanta, on 8 May 1886, but it 4 _______________
(give) the name Coca-Cola by his partner, Frank Robinson. In the first year, only
nine drinks 5 _______________ (sell).
The business 6 _______________ (buy) by Asa Candler in 1888, and he
_______________ (open) the first factory in Dallas, Texas, in 1895. Coca-Cola 7
_______________ (still make) there today. Billions of bottles 8 _______________
(produce) since 1895. and over the years many clever advertisements 9
_______________ (use) to sell the product. It is certain that Coca-Cola 10
_______________ (drink) far into the 21st century.
NYLON
Nylon 1 _______________ (invent) in the early 1930s by an American chemist,
Julian Hill. Other scientists _______________ (work) on his invention and finally on 27
October 1938, Nylon
2 _______________ (introduce) to the world. It was cheap and strong and
immediately
3 _______________ (become) successful, especially in the manufacture of ladies'
stockings.
During World War II, the best present for many women was a pair of nylon
stockings, but more importantly, it 4 _______________ (use) to make parachutes and
tyres.
Today, nylon 5 _______________ (find) in many things: carpets, ropes, seat
belts, furniture, computers, and even spare parts of human body. It 6
_______________ (play) an important parts in our lives for over 50 years. Next year
about 36 million tons of it 7 _______________ (manufacture).
C) Put a/an/the into the blanks if necessary.
When viewing 1 _____ heavily cratered Moon, two different types of terrain are
visible. 2 _____ brighter and very old highlands or 'continents' cover 80% of 3 _____
lunar surface. 4 _____ darker, smoother and younger areas called 'maria', meaning
seas, are actually waterless and more like 5 ______ plains. Most of 6 _____ surface is
covered with regolith which is a mixture of fine dust and rock debris produced by 7
______ meteor impacts.
As on 8 ______ Earth, oxygen is 9 _____ most abundant element on 10 _____ Moon's
surface but in the form of oxides. Because of 10 _____ weak gravity of 11 _____ Moon
(one sixth of 12 ______ Earth's gravity) it has almost no atmosphere. The lack of
gravity and hence atmosphere results in all types of
13 ______ gases escaping form its surface. It also means that there is not enough
atmosphere to protect 14 _____ Moon from 15 _____ Sun's rays during 16 _____
GRAMMAR

daytime leading to temperatures of 123C or keep it warm at night leading to

temperatures of -170C.

GRAMMAR