PASSIVE VOICE

A sentence is written in active voice when the subject of the sentence is performing the action.
A sentence is written in passive voice when the subject of the sentence has something done to it by someone or
something.
Formation
1)

3)

Passive voice is formed with verb To Be in the active verb tense + active verb past participle.

4) Now you have to combine verbal tenses. We are going to use the original sentence and the verbal
tense will be modified.
With Past Simple:

For Compound Tenses: 1) Continuous Forms

**Pay attention to subject/verb agreement when turning it into passive.

Two apples WERE eaten by me
1

For Perfect forms:

For Modal Verbs:

Things to take into account

Be careful when the subject of the active sentence is a personal pronoun. Remember that
pronouns change their form when they are moved to the predicate. They become the patient
subject of the passive sentence.

Some verbs have two objects, e.g.:

give something to somebody
send something to somebody
show something to somebody
There are two passive sentences:
He gave Mary a present.
Mary was given a present by him.
A present was given to Mary by him.
2

Passive voice is like a game, you have movable pieces: Subject, Verb, Object and the rest must stay
unmovable, in its original place.
For example:

I was eating an apple yesterday after my English class because I was very hungry()

No matter how long the sentence is, we have to pay attention to our movable pieces
An apple was being eaten by me after my English class because I was very hungry.

Somebody/Someone
When the subject of the active sentence is impersonal (someone, somebody.) the subject
disappears, it does not become the agent complement as in Spanish
Someone stole my bag.My bag was stolen (by somebody).

Special verbs

there are some verbs such as: say, think, believe, know, understand,
etc.(REPORTING VERBS) which can be transformed into passive voice in two ways:
1) It + passive of reporting verb + that + clause
2) subject + passive of reporting verb + `to infinitive

Activities:
Rewrite these sentences into the passive voice:
Present Simple (is/am/are + past participle)
People drink a lot of tea in England.
He writes a text message every day.
Past Simple (was/were+ past participle)
I took photos in the zoo last week.
They didnt help us last night.
Present Perfect (has/have been + past participle)
Somebody has broken the window.
We havent invited our neighbours to the party yet.
Present Continuous (is/am/are being + past participle)
My mother is watering the flowers now.
The couple is watching a romantic film at the moment.
Past Continuous (was/were being + past participle)
Peter was building a house when the accident happened.
The artists were painting nice pictures when it started to rain.
Future Simple (will be + past participle)
My parents will send me to the USA next year.
The children will play chess if it rains this afternoon.
Passive & two objects
Peter gave Diana a camera for her birthday. Diana
The company will pay you eight hours an hour. You
An agency offered Pamela a better job. Pamela
His boss promised my father a rise in salary. My father

Rewrite each sentence so that the meaning stays the same.

1 People think that neither side wanted war.
Neither side is ...................................................................................................
2 People say that fewer than 1,000 blue whales survive in the southern hemisphere.
Fewer ................................................................................................................
3 Everyone knows that eating fruit is good for you.
Eating fruit ........................................................................................................
4 People consider that one in three bathing beaches is unfit for swimming.
One in three bathing beaches ............................................................................
4

5 At least 130,000 dolphins are reported to be caught in the nets of tuna fishers every year.
It is ....................................................................................................................
6 It is estimated that in the past 15 years about 10 million dolphins have been killed.
About 10 million dolphins ...............................................................................
7 In ancient Greece people thought dolphins were men who had abandoned life on land.
In ancient Greece it ..........................................................................................
8 In ancient Rome it was believed that dolphins carried souls to heaven.
In ancient Rome dolphins ................................................................................
9 People say that the company invested fifty million pounds last week.
The company ....................................................................................................
10 People say Mr Clark was difficult to work with when he was younger.
Mr Clark ...........................................................................................................
11 Someone has calculated that the water of the River Rhine contains over 2,000 chemicals.
It .......................................................................................................................
12 Everyone thought the painting had been destroyed in the fire.
The painting ......................................................................................................
13 It is believed that the Chinese invented gunpowder.
The Chinese ......................................................................................................
14 About 1 million papers are thought to have been sold.
People ...............................................................................................................
15 It is thought that the two injured men were repairing high-tension cable.
The two .............................................................................................................
16 We hope that the government has prepared a plan.
The government ................................................................................................
17 People say that Mr Bond was having business difficulties when he was charged with fraud.
Mr Bond ............................................................................................................
18 It is thought that this treasure dates from the 19th century.
This treasure ......................................................................................................
19 People believe that a professional thief stole the painting.
It ........................................................................................................................