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THE PASSIVE

I. RULES AND USES


1. Formation
 Made up of auxiliary be or the verb get + past participle
 To turn a sentence from the active into the passive voice, we must consider:
- The change of position and status of the Subject and the Object:
The Object of the active voice sentence becomes the Subject of the
passive voice construction (the grammatical Subject). The Subject of
the active voice sentence becomes the by-Agent of the passive voice
construction.
- The passive transformation of the verb:
The verb of the active voice sentence is replaced in the passive voice
construction by the verb be (which maintains the same tense as the verb
of the active voice) followed by its past participle.

Jim invited Mary to the cinema.

Mary was invited by Jim to the cinema.

2.Transformation for all tenses:

Tense Active Voice Passive Voice


Present Simple He washes the car. The car is washed.
Present Continuous He is washing the car. The car is being washed.
Past Simple He washed the car. The car was washed.
Past Continuous He was washing the car. The car was being washed.
Present Perfect Simple He has washed the car. The car has been washed.
Present Perfect Continuous He has been washing the car The car has been being washed.
Past Perfect Simple He had washed the car. The car had been washed.
Past Perfect Continuous He had been washing the car. The car had been being washed.
Future Simple He will wash the car. The car will be washed.
Future Continuous He will be washing the car. The car will be being washed.
Future Perfect He will have washed the car. The car will have been washed.
Future in the past Would I knew he would wash his car I knew his car would be washed.
To be going to He is going to wash the car. The car is going to be washed.
Used to He used to wash the car. The car used to be washed.
Present infinitive To wash the car To be washed
Perfect infinitive To have washed the car To have been washed
Gerund Washing Being washed
Perfect gerund Having washed Having been washed
Modal Verbs He can wash the car. The car can be washed.
He should wash the car. The car should be washed.
He must wash the car. The car must be washed.
He may have washed the car The car may have been washed.
etc etc
! Although all tense and aspect forms are allowed in the passive, some of them are much less
frequently used: past perfect continuous, future continuous, future perfect continuous, and
sometimes are considered awkward.

3.Uses
- When the agent is unknown, unimportant or obvious
The road repairs have been completed.
- To make statements more polite or formal/ to render the sentence impersonal
My new suit has been burnt! (more polite than saying You’ve burnt my
suit!/ avoiding to name a specific person who is responsible for an
action)
- When the action is more important than the agent (news, reports, formal notices,
instructions, headlines, advertisements)
Taking pictures is not allowed.
Bread must be baked in an oven for 45 minutes.
It has been decided to reduce all salaries by 15%.
- To put emphasis on the agent
The castle was built by William the Conqueror.

4.The omission of the by-Agent:


- when the Agent is obvious: The thief was arrested. (by the police- obvious)
- when the Agent is unimportant or unknown: My bike was stolen. (by him/ her/
them/ someone)

5. Get in the passive voice


- to express something happening by accident:
Susan got stabbed trying to save a child.
She got sunburnt last week.
- to express more responsibility or a distinct intention
He got arrested. (He did something wrong, he’s responsible)
-Renders the speaker’s attitude, his emotional involvement:
He got caught, the silly fool!
-In phrases which focus on the action:
Get lost!/ Let’s get started!

6. By + agent / With + instrument/ material


He was knocked down by a lorry. (agent)
The door was locked with a key. (instrument)

7.The presentative passive


Believe, expect, feel, say, think, know, report can be used in the following patterns:
- It + passive + that-clause: It is believed that she is the author of the
book.
- Subject (person) + passive + to-infinitive: She is believed to be the
author of the book.

! The passive in there-existential sentence: In this case, passive morphology is not present,
but the meaning/ interpretation is passive:
There emerged a problem.
There remains a trace.

8. Reporting with the passive


The reporting and the reported event happen simultaneously :
- time frame in the present
The painting is believed to be owned by Mr. Jenkins.
They believe the painting is owned by Mr. Jenkins.

- Time frame in the past


The money was thought to be provided by a private company.
They thought the money was provided by a private company.

Present reporting, past event


The picture is known to have been painted by Picasso.
They know the picture was painted by Picasso.

Past reporting, anterior past event


The documents were claimed to have been signed by the manager.
They claimed the documents had been signed by the manager.

9. Middle constructions
They echo the passive in meaning, but retain the appearance of an active sentence:
The poem reads easily and naturally.
This fabric washes and irons well.
-passive interpretation
-no agent present
-obligatory adverbial modifier

10. CONSTRAINTS/ Verbs that cannot be used in the passive


There are transitive verbs that cannot undergo passivization:
1.Reciprocal verbs: marry one another, resemble each other, fight one another
John fought his brother Paul for the inheritance.
*Paul was fought for the inheritance by John. (?)
- state verbs expressing possession: have, possess, own
He has a great fortune.
*A great fortune is had (?)
- state verbs expressing feelings: love, hate, loathe
He loves Mary.
*Mary is loved by him.
2. Reciprocity between the subject and the object in the active sentence:
John looks like Mary.
*Mary is looked like by John. (?)
3. Reflexive verbs
Mary admires herself in the mirror.
*Herself is admired (?)
4. When the Agent is [-animate]
My shirt needs a wash.
*A wash is needed by my shirt. (?)
5. The IT that is part of idioms cannot become the subject of the passive sentence:
Jack will catch it when his father gets home.
*It will be caught by Jack when his father gets home. (?)
6. The Adjacency constraint
Ditransitive verbs (verbs that take two objects) and the Adjacency Constraint
Two transformations can be made. It is more usual to start with the [+animate] Object:

He gave the flowers to Mary. – active voice

Mary was given the flowers. (more usual)


The flowers were given to Mary. (less usual)

! BUT: Although most grammar books will indicate that both passive transformations
are the counterparts of the active voice sentence, this is not so. In fact, only The
flowers were given to Mary is the passive counterpart of He gave the flowers to Mary
because of the ADJACENCY CONSTRAINT which indicates that only the closest
object to the verb is the one that is promoted into the subject position.

Thus, the right way to turn into passive is the following:


1. He gave the flowers to Mary.

The flowers were given to Mary.


and
2. He gave Mary the flowers.

Mary was given the flowers.

7. Idioms
Some idioms do not have the same behaviour when turned from active into passive, as,
according to certain linguistic approaches, they are interpreted on the basis of metaphors,
metonymies or the encyclopedic knowledge of the world. The inability of certain idioms
to function in the passive is related to the metaphors underlying these idioms.
The old man died. The patient bit the bullet.
*The bullet was bitten.
Other idioms that cannot be used in the passive:
- Chew the fat (chat)
- Gather pace (move faster)
- Kick the bucket (die)
Interestingly, as seen above, idioms having intransitive paraphrases cannot be used in
passive voice.

Other idioms may appear in the passive, as their interpretation is more transparent
and easy to grasp:
The two enemies have buried the hatchet.
√The hatchet has been buried.
Other idioms that can be used in the passive:
- Make an example of
- Make too much of
- Take advantage of
- Pull strings
- Pop the question
- Turn a blind eye to sth
- Break the ice
- Do wonders etc
8. Intransitive verbs with a prepositional object
Some verbs allow passivization:
He paid for the party.
The party was paid for.

They broke into Paul’s house.


Paul’s house was broken into.

Other verbs do not allow passivization:


The book belongs to me.
*I am belonged to by the book. (?)

II. ACTIVITIES
Teach the passive to Intermediate Level Students. Devise four activities of
introducing this topic. Specify: the aim(s), the estimated time, students’ level,
students’ age.

We can adopt a four-stage procedure for teaching the passive.

STAGE 1/ LEAD-IN ACTIVITY


LEVEL: Intermediate
AGE: 14-16 year-old students
ESTIMATED TIME: 5 minutes
AIM: to allow students to predict the new topic and offer opportunities to use
passive constructions.

Activity 1. Rewrite the newspaper headlines as complete sentences:


1. Rare bird found in remote countryside.
2. Queen welcomed to Australia yesterday.
3. New Jersey to be hit by storm tomorrow.
4. Five people injured in car accident.
5. Experiments being carried out on moon rocks.
6. Pop concerts called off because of rain yesterday.
STAGE 2 / ACTIVITY 2
LEVEL: Intermediate
AGE: 14-16 year-old students
ESTIMATED TIME: 5 minutes
AIM: to allow students to recognize and practice the passive voice.

Activity 2. Choose the sentence in the passive voice:

1. A. Burglars have broken into many houses in the area lately.


B. Many houses in the area have been broken into lately.
2. A. The stadium was slowly being filled by the crowd.
B. The crowd was slowly filling the stadium.
3. A. They know he is a cold-blooded murderer.
B. He is known to be a cold-blooded murderer.
4. A. Someone used a knife to open the door.
B. The door was opened with a knife.
5. A. Sheila was paid a lot of money as a bonus.
B. They paid Sheila a lot of money as a bonus.

STAGE 3 / ACTIVITY 3
LEVEL: Intermediate
AGE: 14-16 year-old students
ESTIMATED TIME: 10 minutes
AIM: to improve grammar skills, to reinforce the correct use of the passive
voice.

Activity 3: Turn from Active into Passive:


1. An expert is restoring the painting.
2. Spielberg has directed lots of great movies.
3. A famous designer is going to redecorate the President’s fouse.
4. Van Gogh painted “Sunflowers”.
5. They kill elephants for ivory.

STAGE 4 / ACTIVITY 4: FOLLOW-UP


LEVEL: Intermediate
AGE: 14-16 year-old students
ESTIMATED TIME: 10 minutes
AIM: to enable students to recognize and correct the mistakes in using the
passive voice.

Activity 4. Correct the errors in the following sentences:


1. As I was driving south, I could see that the old road was rebuilding.
2. There is nothing more annoying than been interrupted when you are speaking.
3. I noticed that my wallet had stolen.
4. They were known to have been arresting for petty crimes.
5. Nothing had ever heard of David again.

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