The Passive Voice
An active sentence like I drank two cups of coffee has the subject first (the person or thing that does the action),
followed by the verb, and finally the object (the person or thing that the action happens to).
So, in this example, the subject is 'I', the verb is 'drank' and the object is 'two cups of coffee'.
But, we don't always need to make sentences this way. We might want to put the object first, or perhaps we don't
want to say who did something. This can happen for lots of reasons (see the explanation further down the page). In
this case, we can use a passive, which puts the object first:
Two cups of coffee were drunk (we can add 'by me' if we want, but it isn't necessary).
How to make the Passive in English
We make the passive by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need and then adding the past participle.
For regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding 'ed' to the infinitive. So play becomes played.
Tense Active Passive
present simple I make a cake. A cake is made (by me).
past simple I made a cake. A cake was made (by me).
present continuous I am making a cake. A cake is being made (by me).
past continuous I was making a cake. A cake was being made (by me).
present perfect I have made a cake. A cake has been made (by me).
past perfect I had made a cake. A cake had been made (by me).
future simple I will make a cake. A cake will be made (by me).
Verbs with two objects
Some verbs that have two objects can make two different active sentences, and so two different passive sentences
too:
Give
Active: He gave me the book / He gave the book to me.
You can choose either of the two objects to be the subject of the passive sentence.
Passive: I was given the book (by him)/ The book was given to me (by him).
Other verbs like this are: ask, offer, teach, tell, lend, promise, sell, throw.
When should we use the Passive?
1. When we want to change the focus of the sentence:
o The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. (We are more interested in the painting than the
artist in this sentence)
2. When who or what causes the action is unknown or unimportant or obvious or 'people in general':
o He was arrested (obvious agent, the police).
o My bike has been stolen (unknown agent).
o The road is being repaired (unimportant agent).
o The form can be obtained from the post office (people in general).
3. In factual or scientific writing:
o The chemical is placed in a test tube and the data entered into the computer.
4. In formal writing instead of using someone/ people/ they (these can be used in speaking or informal
writing):
o The brochure will be finished next month.
5. In order to put the new information at the end of the sentence to improve style:
o Three books are used regularly in the class. The books were written by Dr. Bell. ('Dr. Bell wrote the
books' sound clumsy)
6. When the subject is very long:
o I was surprised by how well the students did in the test. (More natural than: 'how well the students
did in the test surprised me')
Voz Pasiva
Hasta ahora hemos hablado de la voz activa donde enfocamos la acción del verbo en el sujeto. Pero cuando
queremos dar más importancia a la acción y no a quien la ha realizado, utilizamos la voz pasiva.
Ejemplos:
Voz activa
He ate all of the cookies. (Comió todas las galletas.)
Voz pasiva
All of the cookies were eaten. (Todas las galletas fueron comidas.)
Grammatical Rules (Reglas gramaticales)
Se forma la voz pasiva con el verbo auxiliar “to be” en el tiempo verbal que se desee y el participio pasado del verbo
principal.
Sujeto + verbo auxiliar (to be) + participio pasado…
Ejemplos:
The speech is written for the president. (El discurso es escrito para el presidente.)
The house was built in 1975.(La casa fue construida en 1975.)
Para transformar una oración activa a pasiva tenemos en cuenta los siguientes puntos:
1. El objeto de la oración activa pasa a ser el sujeto de la pasiva.
2. El verbo principal se sustituye por el auxiliar “to be”, en su mismo tiempo, junto al verbo principal en participio.
3. El sujeto de la oración principal pasa a ser complemento agente de la pasiva.
4. Si hacemos mención en la oración del sujeto que realiza la acción (sujeto agente), este irá normalmente precedido
por la preposición “by” seguido por los pronombres objetivos: me, you, him, her, us, them
Ejemplos:
Voz activa:
Mark Twain wrote the book. (Mark Twain escribió el libro.)
Voz pasiva:
The book was written by Mark Twain.(El libro fue escrito por Mark Twain.)
Uses (Usos)
1. Usamos la voz pasiva cuando no sabemos quién ha realizado la acción.
2. Usamos la voz pasiva cuando queremos dar más importancia a lo que pasó, que a quién realizó la acción o cuando
no queremos decir quien la realizó.
3. Para cambiar el foco de la información.
4. En escritos fácticos o científicos
5. Cuando el sujeto es muy largo
6. Para colocar nueva información al final de una oración para mejorar el estilo de escritura.
Nota: No podemos usar la voz pasiva con verbos intransitivos como “die”, “arrive” o “go”. Verbos intransitivos son
verbos que no llevan un objeto directo.
