THE PASSIVE VOICE

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez López

We use the Passive Voice when the Agent is unknown or

unimportant:People speak English =

English is spoken all over the world.

They serve seafood in that restaurant =Seafood is served in that restaurant.

Or to make the Object of the Active Sentence more important:

Hamlet was written by

Shakespeare.

A window has been broken.

From Active to Passive Voice:

ACTIVE: Peter bought a car

PASSIVE: A car was bought by Peter

CHANGES:

Active Object becomes Passive Subject: A car

Verb “Be” in the same tense as Active Verb + Active Verb in the Past

Participle: is bought

Subject: Agent with “BY”: by Peter (We omit it when it isn’t relevant)

Check this chart:He writes novels: He is writing novels:He wrote novels: He was writing novels:He has written novels:He had written novels:He can/ will/ may/ …write

novels:He can/may / will/ have written

novels:

Novels are written by him.Novels are BEING WRITTENNovels were WRITTENNovels were BEING

WRITTENNovels have BEEN WRITTENNovels had BEEN WRITTENNovels can/ will/ may BE

WRITTENNovels can/ may/ will HAVE

BEEN WRITTEN.

Sentences with two Objects:

When the active sentence has two Objects (verbs such as give, tell, send, …) :

Mary will tell you everything.Joe has given me a present.

The INDIRECT OBJECT often becomes the SUBJECT in the Passive:

You will be told everything by Mary.I have been given a present by Joe.

Verbs like: Believe, Think, Consider, Estimate,

Know, Expect, …when followed by a subordinate clause:

They think that Joe is a good worker.

Change to:

1) It + Passive Verb + Subordinate Clause:

It is thought that Joe is a good worker.

OR

2) Subordinate Subject + Passive Verb + Subordinate Active Verb in Infinitive:

Joe is thought to be a good worker.

HAVE/ GET SOMETHING DONE (Causative Passive):

When you arrange to / pay for / etc. someone else do a thing for you :

I had/got my hair cut (by the hairdresser)

I’ve just had/got my car repaired (by a mechanic).