21636625-passive-voice-121205085925-phpapp01

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PASSIVE VOICE


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What is Passive Voice?

Passive Voice is a structure we use in

English where the subject becomes

the object.

In the active voice, the subject does

the action.

Alice wears a red dress.


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The cat eats the mouse.

Who does the action in this sentence?

Who eats the mouse?

The cat

It performs the action. We see theaction in the cats point of view.


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Now, Passive Voice expresses an

action done to a subject. That means

the subject receives the action.Theobject becomes the subject of thepassive sentence.

The mouse is eaten by the cat.In this sentence the mouse is the

subject.

We see the action in the mouses pointof view.


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When do we use Passive Voice?

We use Passive Voice when;we want to place emphasis on the objector objects,

we do not know who is performing the

action, or it is not apparent who isperforming the action,

we express a general idea.

To talk about the actions or events when we

want to emphasize what happened, or whoit happened to, rather than who or whatcaused the action.


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Why do we use Passive Voice?

We vary our speech in English.

It is usually used to say what has

happened when talking about events.

It is often used on the news, in

newspapers, manuals and recipes.

It gives a different style and variationto language. At times it just sounds

better.


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How do we form Passive Voice?

to be + the past participle.

We form Passive Voice by putting the verb

to be into the same tense as the active

verb and adding the past participle of theactive verb.

Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.

Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.Bugsy stole the money early this morning.

The money was stolen early this morning.


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Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.

Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.

Edison invented the light bulb.

The light bulb was invented by Edison.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ o ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We can omit by if we dont know who is performing

the action, or its not apparent.

They killed the president.

The president was killed.

Theyve reduced the prices of many things in the

shops.

The prices of many things have been reduced in

the shops.


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We sometimes make passive

sentences with get instead ofbe

The money was stolenThe money got stolen

Mom, We were playing football and

the window got broken.


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We generally use the passive

because the agent is not important or

not known.

The house was built in 1925.

(Agent unknown / unimportant)

English is spoken in Canada.(Specific agent unknown /

unimportant)


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However, we can include the agent

after the verb in a passive sentence,

using the preposition BY

My lunch was stolen by a gorilla fromthe circus!

The new hospital is going to be

opened by the Queen herself.

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