THE PASSIVE VOICE

The Passive Voice The Passive is formed by TO BE + PAST PARTICIPLE. Active: I keep the butter in the fridge. Passive: The butter is kept in the fridge. Active: They will steal the painting. Passive: The painting will be stolen. Active: They are repairing the road. Passive: The road is being repaired. Active: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. Passive: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare. Active: A dog bit him. Passive: He was bitten by a dog.

Tom wrote a new book A new bookwas writtenby Tom CHANGES

ACTIVEPASSIVE PRESENT SIMPLE Tom writes science fiction book Science fiction books are written by Tom PASAT SIMPLE Tom wrote science fiction book Science fiction books were written by Tom FUTURE Tom will write science fiction book Science fiction books will be written by Tom The Passive Voice

In the following example:  The police rescued the boy  The boy was rescued by the police. The Passive Voice The object in the active sentence (the boy) is the subject in the passive sentence. TThe police rescued the boy. TThe boy was rescued by the police.

The verb in the first sentence “rescued” turns into "was rescued". According to the rule, in the second sentence we write the verb to be in the same tense as the active verb in the first sentence (in this case, the past tense). Then, we add the past participle of the participle of the verb in the active sentence. The police rescued the boy. The boy was rescued by the police.

The subject in the first sentence (the police) becomes the agent in the passive voice. We need to add the preposition by in front of the agent. The agent can be omitted when it is not relevant or can be deduced by the context. The police rescued the boy. The boy was rescued by the police. The postmant delivered a letter. The letter was delivered (by the postman).

WRITE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES INTO PASSIVE VOICE Janet writes lots of books. Lots of books are written by Janet. The man broke the windows yesterday. The windows were broken by that man yesterday. Jim and Annn will read the letters. The letters will be read by Jim and Ann.

The indirect object can also become the subject in the passive voice: They gave me the Oscar in I was given the Oscar in In the last example, we can omit the agent (by them) because it doesn’t add any new information. In contrast, the agent (by the Academy) is necessary: The Academy gave me the Oscar in I was given the Oscar in 1998 by the Academy