The passive voice

FORM: Examples
• Present Simple Present Simple
She writes a letter A letter is written (by her)
• Present Continuous
She is writing a letter A letter is being written.
• Present Perfect Simple
She has written a letter A letter has been written
• Past Simple
She wrote a letter A letter was written
• Past Continuous
She was writing a letter A letter was being written
• Past Perfect Simple
She had written a letter A letter had been written
• Future Simple
She will write a letter A letter will be written
• Future Perfect Simple
She will have written a letter A letter will have been written
• Be going to
She is going to wrote a letter A letter is going to be written
• Modals / semi-modals
She has to / can write a letter A letter has to / can be written
 Structure
• Active Voice:

Subject + Verb + Direct Object + Complements

She writes a letter in her desk

• Passive Voice:

Subject + ‘to be’ + participle of main verb + Complements + (Agent)

A letter is written in her desk (by her)

 Indirect Compl. as Subject

• If there is a direct and an indirect object in the active sentence, the

indirect object is preferred as the subject of the passive voice.

• Active Voice: Subject + verb + D.O. + I.O. + Complements

They bought a watch to Peter for his birthday.

• Passive Voice: Sub. + ‘to be’ + partic. + D.O. + Compl. + (Agent)

Peter was bought a watch for his birthday

(by them).
 Agent
• By + noun is used to say who does the
action. If we don’t know who does the
action, or it is someone or something
unknown or general, we don’t use by.
 Somebody should have cleaned the
windows yesterday
 The windows should have been
cleaned yesterday.
 MAIN USES
• To focus on the action rather than on the person who performs the action.
 A lot of houses were broke into last month. (Entraron en muchas casas [a
robar] el mes pasado; we focus on the action).

• We don’t know who / what performed the action or we don’t want to say it.
 The window was broken (Han roto la ventana; we don’t know who broke
the window)

• When the agent is irrelevant.

 A house is going to be built in this place (se va a construir una casa en
este lugar; we don’t mind who’s going to build the house).

• In formal speech.
 It has been decided that no cell phones should be used (Se ha decidido
que no se podrán usar teléfonos móviles).
 SPECIAL CASES
• Passive infinitive modal verb + BE + past participle
 The job must be finished

• Passive + to + infinitive, with verbs: believe, consider, know, suppose,

think
 He is supposed to be funny.

• Impersonal expressions (same verbs as before)- It is believed that... (se

cree que...)
 It is believed that he was hidden in a cave.

• Verb + preposition: the preposition is placed after the verb:

 I will look after your children

 Your children will be looked after by me.
 OMISSION OF THE AGENT
• We don’t know who the agent is.
 He has been murdered (Ha sido asesinado).
• The agent is not important.
 I’ve been told the bank is closed. (Me han dicho que el banco está cerrado; no
importa quién lo ha dicho).
• It’s obvious what or who the agent is.
 She wasn’t paid this month (No le han pagado este mes; el agente es obvio: el
jefe).
• The agent has been already mentioned.
 He responded quickly, and new answers were given (Él respondió rápidamente, y
nuevas respuestas fueron dadas –por él).
• People in general are the agent.
 The film has been well-received (La película ha sido bien recibida –por la gente, en
general).
• A wish to conceal the identity of the agent ot to distance ourselves from our own
actions.
 The mirror has been broken (Se ha roto el espejo –no quiero decir quién lo ha
roto).
 She was given instructions to moderate her tone (Se le ha dado órdenes de
moderar su tono –puede que el agente sea yo, pero al no querer implicarme en la
acción, uso la pasiva).