Lesson Fourteen

Infinitives, Passive Voice

to be + past participle

He wants to be fed.

(The mother will feed the baby)

She wants to be paid for her tea.

She likes to be seen wearing

purple hair.

He needs to be given a long prison

sentence because he's a very dangerous
person.
This guitar needs to be tuned. It sounds
terrible!

They expect their baby to be born in

November.
Lesson Fifteen
Gerunds, Passive Voice
being + past participle

1. She enjoys being photographed.

(Note: "enjoys" is the main verb. "Being

photographed" is a gerund )

2. He hates being photographed.

He doesn't like to have his

picture taken.

3. Her baby loves being held.

 4. Being served quickly is
important for customers in a
restaurant.

Remember that there are important rules regarding

gerunds.

For a review of those rules, click here.

Gerunds, like infinitives, look like verbs, but they actually function as nouns.
Consider the following sentences:

 I like going to the beach. ("like" is the verb; "going" is the gerund.)
 Playing volleyball at the beach is fun. ("Playing" is the gerund and functions as
the subject.)

 I like eating cold pizza. ("like" is the verb; "eating" is the gerund.)

Gerunds are often confused with verbs. Because gerunds take an "ing" ending, some
students mistake them for verbs in the continuous form. If you don't see the verb "be" in
front of a word with an "ing" ending, it's probably a gerund. For example, which sentence
has a gerund?:

1. He thinks that learning English is important for his career.

2. This morning, they're meeting their friends at the airport.

If you said the first sentence, you're correct! The second sentence is in the present
continuous tense.

Lesson Sixteen
Unusual Uses of Get and Have

As you have noticed, the Green Level is focused entirely on the

passive voice. Normally the passive voice is constructed with
the verb "be" or "get" and then the past participle. However,
there are other similar verb constructions you should know
about.
 have + the past participle

I(S) ha ve (V) my oil(D O) c ha nge d(V) onc e ev e ry thre e

m onths .

or

get + the past participle

I(S) ge t(V) m y oil(D O) c ha nge d(V) once every three months.

Both sentences have the same meaning. What makes them different from the
passive voice is the word order:

S + V + DO + V

Generally, when you use this word order, it sounds like you had some kind of
work done for you. You paid someone or got someone to do something and you
didn't do anything.
 He got his hair cut by a barber.

(A professional barber did the work.)

or

He had the barber give him a haircut.

Note: If a person doing the work comes after the

verb, the verb is in the simple form.

If a thing comes after the verb, the verb is in the

form of the past participle.

In the first sentence, the word "cut" is a past

participle.

In the second sentence, "give" is in the simple

form. This is also explained in the video below.

They had their house painted blue.

(Professional house painters did the work.)

or

They had a company paint their house.

She got her teeth cleaned by a dental hygienist.

or

She had the hygienst clean her teeth.

 More examples:

I get my taxes done every year by an accountant.

She had her nails manicured by a manicurist.

We get our car fixed by a mechanic.

 Lesson Seventeen
Make

The verb "make" is similar to "get" and "have" when used to express
that someone is doing work for you.

I made him clean his room.

T h e p o l i c e o f f i c e r m a d e m e p u l l o v e r.

Her supervisor made her work on Sunday.

The above examples have this word order:

Subject + "make" + direct object + Verb (in the simple form)

This usage expresses that the subject has some sort of power or
influence to have someone or something do something.

His father made him wash the car.

She made her husband help her clean the kitchen.

If she doesn't make her daughter eat her vegetables, she

won't eat them.

More examples:

I made the store give me my money back when I

returned a broken cell phone.

The government made the company pay a large fine

because it did something illegal.

Please don't make me work on the weekend. I want to

spend time with my family instead.
Note: I've included this lesson among the passive
exercises because in some ways it's similar. However, in
these examples you'll see there is no use of the verb "be"
before "make." That would be different:
His car was made by Toyota.