English - The Passive

The Passive

We form the passive with de verb to be and the past participle of the main verb

We use the passive when:

• The action is more important than the person who does it. The beach is being cleaned.

• The person who does the action is unknown, unimportant or obvious. The beach is cleaned every year.

Changing the active to the pasive

• The object of the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive sentence
• The active verb changes into a passive form (to be + past participle of main verb).
• The subject of the active sentence becomes the agent.
• The agent is introduced with by (person) or with (instrument, material, ingredient) or it is omitted because it is unimportant or easily understood.

subject verb object

Active:

My sister baked the cake.

subject verb agent

Passive:

The cake was baked by my sister.

Exercises

• Complete

The car _______ (wash) by the mechanic yesterday. My phone _______ (steal) while I was at the park. The report _______ (write) by the intern needs to be reviewed. The cake _______ (bake) by my sister was delicious. The concert _______ (cancel) due to the bad weather.