Passive Voice

Compare:
- A friend of ours is repairing the roof. (active)
- The roof is being repaired by a friend of ours.
(passive)
- This book will change your life. (active)
- Your life will be changed by this book. (passive)

When we say what people and things do, we use

active verb forms.
When we say what happens to people and things
what is done to them we often use passive verb
forms.
 The object of an active verb corresponds to the
subject of a passive verb:
OBJECT

Active: They built this house in 1486.

Passive: This house was built in 1486.
SUBJECT
Tense Structure Example
Simple am/are / is + pp English is spoken here.
Present
Present am/are / is being + pp Excuse the mess; the house is being
Continuous painted.
Simple Past was/were + pp I wasnt invited, but I went anyway.
Past was/were being + pp I felt as if I was being watched.
Continuous
Present have/has been + pp Has Mary been told?
Perfect
Past Perfect had been + pp I knew why I had been chosen.
Will future will be + pp Youll be told when the time comes.
Future perfect will have been + pp Everything will have been done by
Tuesday.
Going to am/are/is going to be Whos going to be invited?
future + pp
 Verbs not used in the passive
- Passive structures are not possible with intransitive
verbs (e.g. die, arrive, sleep) which do not have
objects you cannot sleep something, for example.
- Some transitive verbs are seldom used in the passive.
Most of these are stative verbs (verbs which refer to
states, not actions)
- They have a nice house.
- But not A nice house is had by them.
- Your mother lacks tact.
- But not Tact is lacked by your mother.
Agent
In passive clause, we usually use a phrase
beginning with by if we want to mention the
agent the person or thing that does the action,
or that causes what happens.

All the trouble was caused by your mother.

I was shocked by your attitude.
These carpets are made by children who work
twelve hours a day.
 Active or Passive?
We often begin a sentence with something that is
already known, or that we are already talking about,
and put the news at the end.
Compare:
- Johns painting my portrait. (active verb, so the
news the portrait can go at the end.
- Nice picture. Yes, it was painted by my
grandmother. (passive verb, so that the news
the painter can go at the end.
* Yes, my grandmother painted this picture.
Longer and heavier expressions often go at the end
of a clause, which is also a reason for choosing a
passive structure.

- The huge orange sun sinking slowly below the

horizon delighted her .
- She was delighted by the huge orange sun sinking
slowly below the horizon.
We often use the passive:

When the agent is not known:

She was murdered. (We dont know who did it.)
When the agent is obvious from the context or form
general knowledge:
She has been sacked. (obviously by her employer)
When the agent is not important or relevant:
Wars have been fought throughout history. ( who
fought them is not important here.)
 We use the passive when we wish to avoid
mentioning the agent (e.g. - when we dont want
to directly blame any specific person, or we want
to avoid personal responsibility):

I see the washing-up hasnt been done.

Oh dear, look, the vase has been broken.
The passive is often used in formal English to
focus on the issues rather than on the people involved
(very common in academic or scientific writing):
The research was carried out over a period of six
months.
describe rules and procedures:
Answers must be written in ink.
describe commercial, industrial or scientific processes:
Components are electronically transported to the
production line.
describe historical, economic or social processes:
Tribal lands were sold over a period of fifty years.