Passive/ reported

BREAKING NEWS

PASSIVE VOICE AND REPORTED SPEECH

PASSIVE VOICE

With the passive voice, the subject is acted upon by some other performer of the verb. (In case you weren’t paying attention, the previous two sentences use the type of voice they describe.)

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Form

Functions

Passive voice

Past Participle

• When the person doing the action is unknown/unimportant or obvious
• The car was stolen
• The decision will be announced tomorrow
• The patient has already been operated on

• When the action itself is more important
• Hundreds of buildings were damage by the hurricane
• To make statements more formal or polite
• The ceremony will be held in the city hall.

to be

We keep the same time and tense

info

Changing

active to passive

Active

Verb

object

The thief stealed the painting from the museum

Passive

Verb

Agent

The painting was stolen from the museum (by the thief)

Practice

WH QUESTIONS

active to passive

In passive questions with who, whom or which we DO NOT omit BY

Main verb in past participle

Verb to be

subject

WH

Who will the speech be given by? Which player was the goal scored by?

Practice

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BREAKING NEWS

PASSIVE VOICE AND REPORTED SPEECH

Reported speech

Reported speech is when we tell someone what another person said. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech.

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Indirect speech

Backshift

Reported speech

In indirect speech, we often use a tense which is 'further back' in the past than the tense originally used.

Reporting verbs: tell / say

(that)

told

(that)

TO

said

(that)

said

Time expressions

Places/ location

QUESTIONS

structure

Reported speech

In indirect speech, we change the question structure to a statement structure and we introduce the question with ask, want to know or wonder.

Marco asked me what time my flight arrived, so he could pick me up.

WH questions

Yes / No questions

We use if or whether to report the question. If is more common.

We use the same question word to report it

• The doctor asked me if I was in pain.
• Marta wondered whether I had gone to the doctor yet

• My mom wanted to know why I skipped class

Practice

Orders or requests

structure

Reported speech

Orders

Requests

verb in past

TO-infinitive

(not)

We can use tell to report an order or other verbs like: command, order, or forbid.

We can use ask to report a request or other verbs like: warn, invite, or beg

• The teacher asked them to close the windows
• Her boss invited her to give a presentation
• José begged me not to go to the concert

• The doctor told you not to stand on your leg
• My friend forbade me to tell her secret
• The policeman commanded him to get out of the car

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Practice

The subject of the active

becomes de agent

Is introduced with the preoposition BY Is omitted

• The agent can be omitted when the subject is; they, he, someone/somebody, people, one...
• The agent is NOT omitted when it is a specific or an important person or when it is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

Verbs with two objects

Some verbs have two objects, an indirect object and a direct object

These clauses have the structure:Verb + Noun (indirect object) + Noun (direct object)

Passive voice

• Marcos sent me an e-mail

We can use a prepositional phrase with to or for with an indirect object:

We can form two passive sentences.

• He offered her some flowers
• She was offered some flowers
• Some flowers were offered to her

Verb + Noun (direct object) + to/for + Noun (indirect object)

• Marcos sent an e-mail to the University

Verbs with two objects

Some verbs have two objects, an indirect object and a direct object

These clauses have the structure:Verb + Noun (indirect object) + Noun (direct object)

Passive voice

• Marcos sent me an e-mail

We can use a prepositional phrase with to or for with an indirect object:

We can form two passive sentences.

• He offered her some flowers
• She was offered some flowers
• Some flowers were offered to her

Verb + Noun (direct object) + to/for + Noun (indirect object)

• Marcos sent an e-mail to the University

Verbs with two objects

Some verbs have two objects, an indirect object and a direct object

These clauses have the structure:Verb + Noun (indirect object) + Noun (direct object)

Passive voice

• Marcos sent me an e-mail

We can use a prepositional phrase with to or for with an indirect object:

We can form two passive sentences.

• He offered her some flowers
• She was offered some flowers
• Some flowers were offered to her

Verb + Noun (direct object) + to/for + Noun (indirect object)

• Marcos sent an e-mail to the University