Passive Voice

PASSIVE

VOICE

5. Passive with know, believe and think.

4. Uses.

3. Examples in diferents tenses.

2. How to form it?

1. What's the passive voice?

INDEX

The passive voice describes what happens to the subject of the sentence. The passive voice emphasizes to the action, which is more important than the subject that realizes it.

This jeans weren't made in Japan.

The first collection was designed by Zara.

To say who realizes the action or to ask about this person (who is the agent complement), we add "by".

These trainers are made in China.

People make these trainers in China.

The direct complement of the active voice turns into the patient subject of the passive voice.

FUTURE PERFECT. Our baby will have been born before Christmas.

FUTURE (GOING TO). Terry is going to made redundant next year.

FUTURE (WILL). It will be painted by next week.

PAST PERFECT. When he got home he found that all of his money had been stolen

PAST CONTINUOUS. The hotel room was being cleaned when we go back from shopping.

PAST SIMPLE. We were invited to the party, but we didn't go.

PRESENT PERFECT. The President of America has been shot.

PRESENT CONTINUOUS. Your questions are being answered.

PRESENT SIMPLE.. Spanish is spoken here

TENSES

The tense of the passive construction is determined by the tense of the verbe "be".

It was discovered by Cristopher Columbus in 1492.

My mobile phone was stolen yesterday.

• For stylistic reasons, specially to allow the main focus of the sentence to be the subject of the verb.

• When we don't know who or what is responsible for the action.

U S E S

At that time, it was though that the world was flat .

Beethoven is now known to have suffered from lead posisonin.g (But that wasn't known at the time).

We can also use an impersonal contruction with it + passive.

If the sentence refers to a current belief about a past event, we use the present simple passive followed by a perfect infinitive (to make done something).

At that time, the world was thought to be flat.

Verbs like know, believe and think are often used in passive constructions, especially in formal language, and are followed by an infinitive.

PASSIVE WITH...

MaRíA