Passive Voice 1st batx

passive voice

1st batx

Review

"Rome wasn't built in a day" "Danger foreseen is half avoided" "Ask no questions and you will be told no lies"

Idioms with a passive structures

summary

In this presentation we'll revise Passive Voice (all forms)

index

Structure of the Passive Voice

Passive Voice: Uses

Auxiliary of the Passive Voice

Sentences with two objects

Active Voice vs Passive Voice

PASSIVE VOICE: uses

We use the active form to focuss on the person or thing that does the action. However, the passive voice is used to emphasize what happens to someone or something. The person who does the action (the doer) is less important. The passive voice is much more used in English than in Catalan or Spanish since we tend to shorten the message (spoken language) and it is also considered to be more academic.

structure of the PASSIVE VOICE

Active: SUBJECT + VERB + COMPLEMENT + (COMPLEMENT 2) Passive: SUBJECT + VERB + (COMPLEMENT 2) + AGENT COMPLEMENT eg. (A) Peter borrowed my book. (B) My book was borrowed by Peter. As you can see, we have modified the structure as well as the verb. The auxiliary (BE) keeps the tense of the active sentence and the content verb goes in past participle. The agent complement (by ... ) is not always necessary and can be omitted.

auxiliary of the PASSIVE VOICE

We form the passive voice with BE (auxiliary) + past participle

active vs passive

Let's analyse a few examples: A) They are going to build a new hospital in my town. P) A new hospital is going to be built in my town. A) My mom made a cake for my birthday. P) A cake was made by my mom for my brithday. A) Students must justify absences as soon as possible. P) Absences must be justified by students as soon as possible. A) John might have won the contest. P) The contest might have been won by John.

sentences with two objects

When sentences have 2 objects (direct & indirect) there are 2 possible ways to make the passive voice sentence: A) He gave her a bunch of flowers. p1) She was given a bunch of flowers by him. p2) A bunch of flowers was given to her by him. A) My mom made me a cake for my birthday. p1) A cake for my birthday was made for me by my mom. p2) I was made a cake for my birthday by my mom.

That's a wrap!