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Understanding Passive Voice Usage

The document discusses the passive voice and how it is formed in English. It is formed using the verb "to be" in the appropriate tense along with the past participle of the main verb. The passive voice is used when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from context. It is also used when the action is more important than the actor, for news headlines, instructions, and to avoid responsibility or blame. Only transitive verbs can be changed to the passive. Certain verbs like "have" and "resemble" cannot be changed to the passive. There are notes on using "let/be allowed to", "get/be" for accidents, using "by" and "with" to indicate the actor or

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109 views2 pages

Understanding Passive Voice Usage

The document discusses the passive voice and how it is formed in English. It is formed using the verb "to be" in the appropriate tense along with the past participle of the main verb. The passive voice is used when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from context. It is also used when the action is more important than the actor, for news headlines, instructions, and to avoid responsibility or blame. Only transitive verbs can be changed to the passive. Certain verbs like "have" and "resemble" cannot be changed to the passive. There are notes on using "let/be allowed to", "get/be" for accidents, using "by" and "with" to indicate the actor or

Uploaded by

profemarta
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Passive voice

Form
We form the passive with the verb to be in the appropriate tense and the past participle of the main verb.

We use the passive:


• when the person/people doing the action is/are unknown, unimportant or obvious from the context. Their
new album was released last week. (We don’t know who released it.)
Adam’s book will be published on Thursday. (Who will publish the book is unimportant.)
A lot of factual mistakes were made in the article. (It’s obvious that the author made the mistakes.)
• when the action itself is more important than the person/people doing it, as in news headlines,
newspaper articles, advertisements, instructions, formal notices, processes, etc.
The film will be shown at 8 pm.
• when we want to avoid taking responsibility for an action or when we refer to an unpleasant event and
we do not want to say who or what is to blame.
Several people were injured.
• to emphasise the agent.
The film was introduced by the director.
• to make statements more formal or polite.
My magazine has been taken. (More polite than saying “You took my magazine.”)

Important
Only transitive verbs (verbs that take an object) can be changed into the passive. The story took place in
Victorian England. (intransitive verb; no passive form).
However:
Some transitive verbs (have, fit (= be the right size), suit, resemble, etc) cannot be changed into the
passive. His style resembles that of Picasso. (NOT: His style is resembled by that of Picasso.)

Note 1: Let becomes be allowed to in the passive.


They let us stay up late to watch the film.  We were allowed to stay up late to watch the film.
Note 2: We can use the verb to get instead of the verb to be in everyday speech when we talk about
things that happen by accident or unexpectedly. Your CD got scratched when I dropped it.
Note 3: By + agent is used to say who or what carries out an action. With + instrument/material/ingredient
is used to say what the agent used. The sketch was made by Leonardo. Who was this piece of music
composed by? It was drawn with charcoal. What was it drawn with?
Note 4: The agent can be omitted when the subject is they, he, someone/somebody, people, one, etc.
The song has been banned. (= They have banned the song.)
Note 5: The agent is not omitted when it is a specific or important person, or when it is essential to the
meaning of the sentence. This T-shirt was signed by the band.
Note 6: With verbs which can take two objects, such as bring, tell, send, show, teach, promise, sell, read,
offer, give, lend, etc we can form two different passive sentences. Jamie gave Rachel a DVD. (active),
Rachel was given a DVD by Jamie. (passive, more common), A DVD was given to Rachel by Jamie.
(passive, less common)
Note 7: The verbs hear, help, see and make are followed by a bare infinitive in the active, but a to-
infinitive in the passive. Kate made me learn the poem by heart. (active)  I was made to learn the poem
by heart by Kate. (passive)
Note 8: Passive of reporting verbs/Impersonal passive: Reporting verbs can be used with passive
constructions when we want to introduce a widely held opinion or fact.
There are two ways of doing this:
• lt + passive + that clause
lt is said that fish is good for our brains.
lt is believed that the economy is getting worse.
lt is thought that global warming caused the floods.

• Subject+ passive+ to+ infinitive/continuous infinitive/perfect infinitive without to.


Fish is said to be good for our brains.
The economy is believed to be getting worse.
Global warming is thought to have caused the floods.
Verbs commonly used with these constructions are believe, consider, expect, feel, know, say and think
Unit 6
The future

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