Active Voice, Passive Voice


There are two special forms for verbs called voice:
  1. Active voice
  2. Passive voice
The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb:

activesubjectverbobject
>
Catseatfish.

The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subjectreceives the action of the verb:

passivesubjectverbobject
<
Fishare eatenby cats.

The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb:

subjectverbobject
activeEverybodydrinkswater.
passiveWateris drunkby everybody.

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. Don´t you know what is that? You should take a look to this link 

Look at these examples:

subjectauxiliary verb (to be)main verb (past participle)
Waterisdrunkby everyone.
100 peopleareemployedby this company.
Iampaidin euro.
Wearenotpaidin dollars.
Aretheypaidin 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
subjectverbobject
give importance to active object (President Kennedy)President Kennedywas killedby Lee Harvey Oswald.
active subject unknownMy wallethas been stolen.?

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

Conjugation for the Passive Voice



We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle form and the auxiliary verb is always be. To form the required tense, we conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:
  • present simple: It is made
  • present continuous: It is being made
  • present perfect: It has been made
Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses:

infinitiveto be washed
simplepresentIt is washed.
pastIt was washed.
futureIt will be washed.
conditionalIt would be washed.
continuouspresentIt is being washed.
pastIt was being washed.
futureIt will be being washed.
conditionalIt would be being washed.
perfect simplepresentIt has been washed.
pastIt had been washed.
futureIt will have been washed.
conditionalIt would have been washed.
perfect continuouspresentIt has been being washed.
pastIt had been being washed.
futureIt will have been being washed.
conditionalIt would have been being washed.

Activities



Practice with the passive voice and make points for Class of Clans!



3 comentarios:

Anónimo dijo...

pero cuando va a ser el examen

Anónimo dijo...

HOLA

Salva dijo...

Puntos de la voz pasiva!

David: 190 puntos. Logros primero completo
Jorge: 320 puntos. Completo cerebro
Guillermo: 170 puntos. Logro completo
Roberto: 150 puntos. Logro completo