Passive Voice

What is passive voice? Passive voice is formed by making the object of the sentence into the subject of the sentence. e.g. The tiger bites John. John is bitten by the tiger.

When do we use passive voice? CCC Kei Wa Primary School (Kowloon Tong) Unit 6 Learning sheet 6.7 Name: ____________________( ) Class: P.6 ( ) When do we use passive voice? We use passive voice when: focusing on the person or thing affected by the action. That means the object of the action is more important than those who perform the action. e.g. The tiger bites John. (In this sentence, we want to focus on the action done by “the tiger”.) e.g. John is bitten by the tiger. (In this sentence, we want to focus on “John”. He is the victim.)

When do we use passive voice? CCC Kei Wa Primary School (Kowloon Tong) Unit 6 Learning sheet 6.7 Name: ____________________( ) Class: P.6 ( ) When do we use passive voice? We use passive voice when: we don’t know who did the action. e.g. Someone broke the vase. (In this sentence, we don’t know who broke the vase, so we use someone as a subject. However, we can use passive voice instead.) e.g. The vase was broken. (If we don’t know who did the action, we can skip the subject by using passive voice.)

The passengers use the escalators in the MTR station. The escalators are used by the passengers in the MTR station.

The passengers occupy the compartments in the peak hours. The compartments are occupied by the passengers in the peak hours.

The driver controls the train doors. The train doors are controlled by the driver.

The staff in KCRC complained about the chairman, Michael Tien . The KCRC chairman, Michael Tien, was complained about by the staff.

The operators maintain the railways every day. The railways are maintained by the operators every day.

The shopkeeper, Mr. Ng, operates the kiosk. The kiosk is operated by the shopkeeper, Mr. Ng.

The passengers buy the tickets. The tickets are bought by the passengers.

The driver drives the train. The train is driven by the driver.