The Passive Voice How do you make it? When do you use it?

English uses both active and passive sentences. Here are some examples of each: Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare. Development threatens the rain forests. The rain forests are threatened by development.

More Examples... Sam built that beautiful home. That beautiful home was built by Sam. The secretary answers the telephone. The telephone is answered by the secretary. Dogs chase cats. Cats are chased by dogs.

Past Participles? Regular past participles are like the simple past – the both end in -ed – Irregular past participles do not end in – ed; you must memorize the spelling. The spelling for the past participle isn’t always the same as the irregular simple past. Examples: Present Simple Past Past Participle WalkWalkedWalked Begin BeganBegun Bend BentBent Irregular verbs list -

How do you form this grammar? Subject + Be + Past Participle + by This week, we will start with basic passive sentences: past and present passives. Look at these examples and decide what tense the active sentences are: John fixed the car. The car was fixed by John. The wind started the fire. The fire was started by the wind. The dean makes the decisions. The decisions are made by the dean. The engineers built the bridge. The bridge was built by the engineers. People destroy rain forests. Rain forests are destroyed by People.

Present Passive Examples… Present passives: The mailman delivers the mail. The mail is delivered by the mailman. The custodians clean the classrooms. The rooms are cleaned by the custodians.

Past Passive Examples… Past passives: The dog knocked over the vase. The vase was knocked over by the dog. Lisa made the cookies. The cookies were made by Lisa.

When do we use passive grammar? We typically use passive grammar when we want to emphasize or focus on the object of the sentence. Ex. Lisa was hit by another driver. *Here, our focus is on Lisa, as a victim or recipient of the action, getting hit. We also use the passive when it’s not so important OR not known WHO did the action. Ex. The house was built in *Here, we don’t know who built the house. Ex. The criminals were arrested. (by the police) *Here, we assume the police did the action of arresting the criminals, so it’s not necessary to write

Here are more examples: Thousands of people are killed on California’s freeways each year. We don’t know exactly WHAT kills these people, but we assume it’s things like car accidents, excessive speed, careless driving, etc. The sweaters are made in Taiwan. We don’t know exactly WHO makes them, but we assume it’s a worker.

Online Resources sentence-activity-fun-game-online/ 20Practice.html grammar/gr_prac_form-Passives.htm