1. By Mtra. Lina Cruz OrtegaX
Passive Voice
By Mtra. Lina Cruz Ortega
What it is?
Form
Structure
Uses
The Agent
All tenses

2. What is Active Voice?
It’s the grammatical voice that describes the performer of the action.
The most important thing in the active voice is the person who does the action.
Example:
Christopher columbus discovered América in 1492
Subject Verb Complement
Direct
Object

3. What is Passive Voice?
It’s the gramatical voice that focus on the object and not the person who does the action.
The most important thing is the action.
We usually don’t know or are interested in who does the action. Sometimes it is obvious.

4. Example: AV: Christopher C. discovered America in 1492.
Subject Verb Direct Object
PV: America was discovered by Christopher C. in ..
Subjec Verb (BE + PAST PARTICIPLE) Agent

5. How is it formed?
The Passive Voice is formed with the Auxiliary BE + the main verb in past participle.
Verb Tense
Auxiliary BE
Past Participle
Present Simple
am / is / are
written
Past Simple
was / were

6. Examples: They sell guitars. Guitars are sold. They sold guitars
Tense
Active Sentence
Passive Sentence
Present S.
They sell guitars.
Guitars are sold.
Past S.
They sold guitars
Guitars were sold
Tense
Active Sentence
Passive Sentence
Present S.
Anna deletes the song.
The song is deleted by Anna
Past S.
Anna deleted the song.
The song was deleted by Anna.

7. The Agent (by…)
It is used when it’s important to know who does/did the action and only when it adds new or important information.
AV: Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet.
PV: Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare.
In this case, the agent is important .

8. When do I omit the Agent?
When it is not important or it is obvious who does / did the action.
If we find words such as people, someone, somebody, he, she, it, or they, we don’t write the agent.
AV: People grow rice in Japan.
PV: Rice is grown in Japan.

9. How do I change an Active Sentence into a Passive Sentence?
1) If the sentence has a Direct Object it can be transformed. Direct Object = What? + Verb  A thing My father bought a car last year. What did he buy?  a car A car was bought by my father last year.

10. How do I change an Active Sentence into a Passive Sentence?
2) If the sentence has an Indirect Object it can be transformed, too.
Indirect Object = Whom? + Verb  A person
He invites Liz to dance every Friday.
Whom does he invite?  Liz
Liz is invited to dance every Friday.

11. Sentences with Indirect Objects:
AV: Mr. Stone teaches Liz on Fridays.
PV: Liz is taught by Mr. Stone on Fridays.
AV: She gave me a present yesterday.
PV: I was given a present yesterday.
Me  I
You  You
Him  He
Her  She
It  It
Us  We
Them  They

12. Important!!!
If the sentence doesn’t have a direct object or an indirect object, it cannot be changed into passive voice.
Sue walk slowly to her home.
Beth looks beautiful in her red dress.
People usually wake up late on the weekend.
These sentences cannot be changed.

13. When do I use Passive Voice?
When the subject is unknown, obvious, it’s not important or to give information.
The building was vandalized.
The flowers were delivered on time.
The roads were fixed quickly.
The airplane was invented in the early 20th century.

14. When do I use Passive Voice?
To add sentence variety.
He did A. Then he did B. After that he did C.
He did A. C wasn’t done until he had completed B.

15. When do I use Passive Voice?
To shift the focus of the subject and make the reader follow your ideas easily.
Coca-cola was invented by a pharmacist named John Pemberton. His original recipe contained cocaine, which is why the drink was named Coca-cola. Today, Coca-cola is a global Brand that is consumed by millions of people.

16. Example of an obituary
Maya Angelou was born on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis Missouri, U.S. She was known around the world as a powerful writer and civil rights activist. Her books and poems were read by millions of people. In the early years, Maya Angelou was raised by her grandmother. When she got older, she was returned to her birth mother. Even though she didn’t go to university, she was awarded many honorary degrees.

17. Example of an obituary
Her wise lectures were enjoyed by many students on graduation day, and her positive attitude was appreciated by many world leaders and figureheads. Maya Angelou was invited to speak at President Clinton’s inauguration and was often cited as Oprah Winfrey’s mentor. A number of articles, tributes and tweets were written about this inspiring woman after she died on May 28, She was 86 years old.

18. PASSIVE VOICE IN ALL T ENSES
Active voice
Passive voice
Present Simple
He paints the house.
The house is painted.
Past Simple
He painted the house.
The house was painted.
Present Progressive
He is painting the house.
The house is being painted.
Past Progressive
He was painting the house.
The house was being painted.
Simple Future
He will paint the house.
The house will be painted.
Future (Be going to)
He is going to paint the house
The house is going to be painted.
Present Perfect
He has painted the house.
The house has been painted.
Past Perfect
He had painted the house.
The house had been painted.
Modals
He may paint the house.
The house may be painted.
He should paint the house.
The house should be painted.
He has to paint the house.
The house has to be painted.

19. am being, is being, are being
Tenses
Verb to BE (auxiliaries)
Present Simple
am, is, are
+ a verb in
past
participle
Past Simple
was / were
Present Progressive
am being, is being, are being
Past Progressive
was being, were being
Future simple
will be
Future (be going to)
am going to be, is going to be, are going to be
Present Perfect
have been / has been
Past Perfect
had been
can be
could be
Modals
should be
must be
has to be
may be
might be