PASSIVE FORMS

we make the passove form of verbs by using be in the appropiate tense plus the past participle of
the main verb:

A password is used to access the site (the customer uses a password to access the site)
My bag was stolen (A thief stole my bag)
The show has been cancelled (The organisers have cancelled the show)
Drinks will be served in the inverval (The waiters will serve drinks)

It is possible to make passive forms of the perfect continuous tenses, but we prefer to use an
active form and an impersonal subject: THEY/ONE
By next month the murder will have been being investigated for over a year X
By next month they will have been investigating the murder for over a year V

PASSIVE MODALS
FORM ACTIVE PASSIVE

MODAL VERBS Candidates must answer all the All the questions must be answered
verb + be + past participle questions

They have to take a test A test has to be taken

MODAL PERFECTS Someone might have stolen it. It might have been stolen
verb + have been + past participle
The jury ought to have convicted He ought to have been convicted
him

SUBJECTS AND AGENTS

The judge will read out the names of the winners in alphabetical order
subject active verb object

In the passive the object becomes the subject and the subject becomes the agent (the person or
thing that causes the action of the passive verb)

The names of the winners will be read out in alphabetical order by the judge
subject active verb agent

Passive constructions are possible with most transitive verbs

Types of passives: SHORT PASSIVES: agentless (the agent is not specified)
LONG PASSIVES: contains a “by-phrase” which specifies the agent of the action
or other semantic role, such as experiencer
Passive constructions with two objects prepositional phrase are common:
ACTIVE: Researchers usually classify elements as metals or non-metals
PASSIVE: Elements are usually classified as metals or non- metals

We need to distinguish PASSIVES from PREDICATIVE ADEJCTIVES

Predicative adjectives describe a state or quality
Example: We are delighted with the result Function: subject predicative
They are generally GRADABLE and can be modified by VERY

Compare:
The silence was broken by the village crier Passive construction
The wire is always broken Predicative Adjective: It is describing a state.

PASSIVE MULTI-WORD VERBS

If phrasal verb has an object, we can usually make it passive. We never separate the parts of the
verb in the passive form
They took the company over in 2010 The company was taken over (by them) in 2010.

THERE ARE SEVERAL PREPOSITIONAL VERBS AND PHRASES WHICH ARE COMMONLY USED IN THE
PASSIVE:

Be aimed at, be applied to, be based on, be considered as, be found in, be known as, be referred
to (as), be regarded as, be related to, (can) be seen as, be thought of (as), be used as

PASSIVE –ING FORMS

ACTIVE PASSIVE
-ing form: Being + past participle
I don’t like people bullying me I don’t like being bullied.
Having + past participle: Have been + past participle:
Have signed the deal, we went out to The deal having been signed, we went out to
celebrate celebrat

We can use either having been + past participle or being + past participle to refer to the past after
certain verbs which are followed by an –ing form: regret, remember etc.
We regret not having been shown/not being shown the Acropolis
PASSIVE INFINITIVES
 To be + past participle (to refer to the present or future):
Children like to be praised when they do well at school
James was hoping to be accepted on the engineering course
 To have been + past participle (to refer to the past)
Stonehenge is the greatest monument to have been built by the ancient Britons
This ascent is the first to have been achieved without the aid of oxygen.
 In reported speech with ask for + object
Inspector Pascoe asked for the prisoners to be held in the cells overnight.
 We can use the passive infinitive after need
That cage really needs to be cleaned

VERBS WITH TWO OBJECTS

Some active verbs have DIRECT and INDIRECT object.
Either object can become the subject of the passive verb
The costumer was offered a refund / A refund was offered to the costumer.
If the object of the passive verb is the indirect object of the active verb it is usually introduce with
a preposition

VERBS NOT USED IN THE PASSIVE

INTRANSITIVE VERBS The visitors arrived early

The plane has landed

CERTAIN VERBS FOLLOWED BY (OBJECT +) TO +

INFINITVE VERB, SUCH AS WANT (HIM TO She wanted him to leave
LEAVE) REFUSE, (TO ANSWER)

CERTAIN VERBS DESCRIBING STATES: SUCH AS

HAVE (=OWN) BE, BELONG, LACK, RESEMBLE, John has a ferrari
PRETEND AND SEEM

HAVE + NOUN TO DESCRIBE AN ACTION John’s having launch

REASONS TO USE THE PASSIVE
 When the agent is not relevant or not known.
 When the agent is obvious from the context or from general knowledge
 When we want to be less direct, or more polite in a formal situation
 When we want to describe general feelings, opinions and beliefs
 Sometimes we know the identity of the agent but we don’t want to mention it because we
don’t want to blame a specific person, or we want to avoid personal responsability

USING PASSIVES IN WRITING

 Focus on the issues rather than on the people involved
 Describe rules and procedures
 Describe commercial, industrial and scientific processes.
 Describe historical, economic and social processes.

PASSIVE REPORTING STRUCTURES

When we want to describe an impersonal or general feeling (not something said by a particular
person) or we don’t want to mention the person whose words are being reported, we can use a
passive form of the reporting verb
 Subject + passive verb + to + infinitive
 It + passive verb + that clause
We can use these passive patterns as an alternative to using an impersonal subject like they:
They said he was innocent
 We can use the same pattern with it when reporting specific decisions or opinions.
We can use these structures with verbs such as assume, argue, believe, demonstrate, know, etc.
We can also use the pattern with it to report specific opinions, conclusions, etc

PASSIVE WITH GET

 Get can be used instead of be in passive forms which describe actions.
 We often use get to describe accidental, negative, unusual or unexpected actions:
How did he get hurt?
His hand got trapped in the car door.
 We cannot use get to describe states.
That house is owned by my uncle V /That house gets owned by my uncle X

MAKE, LET, HELP, ETC.

 With the verbs make (meaning force or require) see, hear and help we make active
sentences with verb + object + infinitive without to
I saw her take it
 But in the passive form we use the infinitive with to
She was seen to take it
  The verb let (meaning allow) has no passive form so we use a passive form of allow/permit
or give permission + infinitive with to
 The teacher let us leave early = we were allowed/permitted/given permission to leave
early.

HAVE/GET SOMETHING DONE

 We use have + object + past participle (known as the causative) to describe something
which is done for the subject by someone else.
The pharaph had the pyramid built while he was still alive.
Have you just had your hair done?
 In informal English we can use get instead of have
DO you get your hair done at Ebony’s
 In imperatives can be the person spoken to or someone else who will do the action
Have/get that mess cleaned up at once
 We can use the causative in future statements as commands or promises. Here it can be
the subject of the sentence or someone else who will do the action:
Make sure you have those keys back on my desk tomorrow morning
 We can also use this pattern to describe something which is done to the subject by
someone else without them asking for it, often something unpleasant or unexpected:
Liz had her passport stolen
WITH THIS MEANING, WE CAN ONLY USE HAVE NOT GET IN THE PRESENT PERFECT
I’m afraid Alicia has had her visa application refused

HAVE SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING

There is an “active” version of the causative which means “cause someone to do something”. The
object is the person who does the action. There are two patterns:
 Have + object + infinitive :
I had the mechanic repair my washing machine
 Get + object + to + infinitive:
I’ll get the hairdresser to do my hair this afternoon