the passive voice

EMMA LARA

THE PASSIVE VOICE

Para transformar una oración activa a pasiva tenemos en cuenta los siguientes puntos:

El objeto de la oración activa pasa a ser el sujeto de la pasiva.

El verbo principal se sustituye por el auxiliar “to be”, en su mismo tiempo, junto al verbo principal en participio.

El sujeto de la oración principal pasa a ser complemento agente de la pasiva

Si hacemos mención en la oración del sujeto que realiza la acción (sujeto agente), este irá normalmente precedido por la preposición “by”.

uses:

1. Usamos la voz pasiva cuando no sabemos quien ha realizado la acción. Ejemplos: A civilian has been killed.(Un civil ha sido asesinado.) The car was stolen.(El coche fue robado.) 2. Usamos la voz pasiva cuando queremos dar más importancia a lo que pasó, que a quién realizó la acción o cuando no queremos decir quien la realizó. Ejemplos: The letter was delivered yesterday.(La carta fue entregada ayer.) A mistake was made.(Un error fue cometido.)

La voz activa: Mark Twain wrote the book.(Mark Twain escribió el libro.) La voz pasiva: The book was written by Mark Twain.(El libro fue escrito por Mark Twain.) La voz activa: The housekeeper will clean the room.(La ama de casa limpiará la habitación.) La voz pasiva: The room will be cleaned by the housekeeper.(La habitación será limpiada por la ama de casa.)

ACTIVE OR PASSIVE?

Do this exercise to check your understanding and difference between the active voice and the passive voice (CLICK ON +INFO)

+info

ACTIVE(A) AND PASSIVE (P)

present simple

is cleaned

cleans

is cleaning

is being cleaned

Present continuous

was cleaned

Cleaned

Past simple

Was cleaning

Was being cleaned

Past continuous

has cleaned

Present perfect

has been cleaned

Had cleaned

Past Perfect

had been cleaned

Click here to practice

exercise with the passive voice with the verb tenses from the previous table

FORM 2: ACTIVE(A) AND PASSIVE (P)

can be cleaned

can clean

will be cleaned

will clean

THE MODAL VERBS

would be cleaned

would clean

must clean

must be cleaned

is going to clean

is going to be cleaned

can be cleaned

can have been cleaned

MODAL VERBS AND THE PASSIVE

Sentences to practice the modal verbs into the passive voice (click on +info to do the exercise)

+info

BY

WITH

We only mention the subject when it is important to say who or what is responsible for something. When this happens we use BY to introduce the agent in the passsive sentence. For ex: in the next sentence the agent would not be mentioned as it doesn´t add any relevant information . Somebody cleans this class every day = This class is cleaned every day

With + instrument It is used to talk about an instrument used by the agent to do something the car was towed with a crane With + material or ingredient The room was filled with smoke This cake is made with brown sugar

VS

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PASSIVE VOICE QUESTIONS

"AN EMAIL IS WRITTEN EVERYDAY"

"IS AN EMAIL WRITTEN EVERYDAY?"

PRESENT SIMPLE PASSIVE VOICE QUESTION

PRESENT SIMPLE PASSIVE VOICE

"WAS AN EMAIL WRITTEN YESTERDAY?"

"AN EMAIL WAS WRITTEN YESTERDAY"

PAST SIMPLE PASSIVE VOICE QUESTION

PAST SIMPLE PASSIVE VOICE

MORE EXAMPLES? CLICK HERE

DID YOU MAKE ALL THE EXERCISES?

75%

LOADING ALL THE INFORMATION IN YOUR BRAIN Would you like more practice? click on the bar to do a final mix exercise!

thanks!

Emma Lara