unit9:passive voice

unit:9   passive voice 
the tower eftiel is built in france by gustav eftiel 

conversation:towers 
sue:wow , watch at the eiffel tower isn't it  wonderful?
david :yeah . it is  amazing . who designed it ?
sue :it was  designed  by gustave  eiffel , a french architect  that  built  her in the nineteenth  century 
david:i know  the view  from the  top is  amazing  will we  climb to the top 

Passive Voice

The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the "normal" voice. But sometimes we need the passive voice. In this lesson we look at how to construct the passive voice, when to use it and how to conjugate it.

Construction of the Passive Voice

The structure of the passive voice is very simple:

subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)

The main verb is always in its past participle form.

Look at these examples:

subject	auxiliary verb (to be)		main verb (past participle)
Water	is		drunk	by everyone.
100 people	are		employed	by this company.
I	am		paid	in euro.
We	are	not	paid	in dollars.
Are	they		paid	in yen?

Use of the Passive Voice

We use the passive when:

• we want to make the active object more important
• we do not know the active subject

	subject	verb	object
give importance to active object (President Kennedy)	President Kennedy	was killed	by Lee Harvey Oswald.
active subject unknown	My wallet	has been stolen.	?

Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are eaten by cats)

Examples

Active	Peter	builds	a house.
Passive:	A house	is built	by Peter.

Active:	Peter	built	a house.
Passive:	A house	was built	by Peter.

.

negative form 
the negative form is formed by 
1-subject 
2-auxiliary be in negative form 
3-verb in past participle 
4-object 
for example :
beer isn't  drunk by everyone 
math isn't studied by  tha classmates 
interrogative form 
is formed by :
auxiliary be +subject +verb in past participle +object +sign

is soccer played by f.c chelsea 
the agent in passive voice 

AGENT

To say who did the action that we are talking about, ie. to refer to the agent, we use the preposition by

and the name (by Peter) , noun (by the teacher) or pronoun (by him) at the end of the sentence.

We usually only refer to the agent when it gives us some important information which otherwise would be 

missing from the sentence. 

Our house was designed by a famous architect.

We don’t mention the agent:

1. if we don’t know who has done what we are talking about.

Our car was stolen last night. (We don’t know who stole it)

2. if we are not interested in who has done what we are talking about or it is not important to 

mention it.

He has been taken to hospital. (What we are interested in is the fact that he has been taken 

to hospital and not who has taken him.)

3. if it is easy to understand who did something without it being mentioned.

The murderer was arrested last night. (It is not necessary to mention that he has been 

arrested by the police because it is self-evident.)

4. if the subject of the active voice sentence is something like somebody, people, they, you, etc.

Someone broke the window. → The window was broken.

ACTIVE TO PASSIVE

To change a sentence from the active voice to the passive voice:

 the object of the active voice sentence becomes the subject of the passive voice sentence.

Agatha Christie wrote this book.

This book was written by Agatha Christie.

 we change the main verb of the active voice sentence into the passive voice. The tense remains 

unchanged.

 the subject of the active voice sentence becomes the agent of the passive sentence. It is placed 

after the past participle and it is preceded by the preposition by

print exercise 
Rewrite these sentences in the passive voice.
a. Someone built this house 200 years ago.
_________________________________________________________________________________
b. A thief stole my purse.
_________________________________________________________________________________
c. The police will arrest the robbers.
_________________________________________________________________________________
d. They produce cars in this factory.
_________________________________________________________________________________
e. They serve breakfast at eight o’clock every day.
_________________________________________________________________________________
f. People throw away tones of rubbish every day.
_________________________________________________________________________________
g. They make coffee in Brazil.
_________________________________________________________________________________
h. Someone stole Jim’s bike lat night.
_________________________________________________________________________________
6. Rewrite these sentences in the passive voice.
a. They will build a new bridge next year.
_________________________________________________________________________________
b. Brian Brody directed The Ultimate Space Adventure.
_________________________________________________________________________________
c. Pierre Matie will design her costume.
_________________________________________________________________________________
d. Someone found my wallet.
_________________________________________________________________________________
e. One of the students broke the window.
_________________________________________________________________________________
f. They will deliver my computer on Monday.
_________________________________________________________________________________
g. Mary invited Paul to her birthday party.
_________________________________________________________________________________
h. British astronomers discovered a new planet.

_________________________________________________________________________________

passive voice in past tense 

in this past  tense is formed by :

1-subject 
2-verb to be  in past tense (was were)
3-verb in past participle 
4-object 

The kitchen was cleaned by Adam 
SUBJECT+ ACTION+ OBJECT
ACTIVE: Alan wrote a letter to me. 

PASSIVE: A letter was written to me by Alan.
The person who makes the action is introduced by the preposition by in the passive 
sentence. But in some cases the subject of the passive sentence is omitted, this happens 
when who or what causes the action is unknown or unimportant. Look at the examples: 
Active                                      Passive                       
Mary bought a book. A book was bought by Mary. 
A thief stole my car. My car was stolen (by a thief). 
I read the message. The message was  read (by me). 

note :
the form interrogative and negative in past tense  have the same structure   that  the  passive  voice in present  adding the particle "not" and  in the interrogative form investing  the auxiliary  with subject