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The Passive Voice: Formation and Uses
In an active sentence, the subject performs the action. In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action. The passive is formed with be + past participle.
Active to Passive Transformation
Active: "Shakespeare wrote Hamlet."
Passive: "Hamlet was written by Shakespeare."
The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive. The agent (doer) is introduced by "by" and is often omitted when unknown, obvious, or unimportant.
Passive in all tenses
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|
| Present Simple | They clean the office. | The office is cleaned. |
| Present Continuous | They are cleaning the office. | The office is being cleaned. |
| Past Simple | They cleaned the office. | The office was cleaned. |
| Past Continuous | They were cleaning the office. | The office was being cleaned. |
| Present Perfect | They have cleaned the office. | The office has been cleaned. |
| Past Perfect | They had cleaned the office. | The office had been cleaned. |
| Future (will) | They will clean the office. | The office will be cleaned. |
| Modals | They must clean the office. | The office must be cleaned. |
When to use the passive
- The agent is unknown: "My car was stolen last night."
- The agent is obvious: "The criminal was arrested." (by the police - obvious)
- The agent is unimportant; the action/result matters more: "The bridge was built in 1965."
- Formal and academic writing: "The experiment was conducted over six months."
Recuerda
Only transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object) can be made passive. Intransitive verbs (arrive, happen, sleep, die) CANNOT be passive: "An accident happened" (NOT "An accident was happened").
Ejercicios
1. Rewrite in the passive voice:
a) Someone has stolen my bicycle.
b) They are building a new hospital.
c) The teacher will correct the exams tomorrow.
d) They had already sold all the tickets when we arrived.
e) People speak English all over the world.
f) You must complete this form before Friday.
2. Decide if the passive is possible or not. Explain why:
a) The accident happened at midnight.
b) Millions of people watch the World Cup final.
c) She arrived late.