1. Passive Voice
The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the "normal" voice. But sometimes we need the passive voice. In this lesson we look at how to construct the passive voice, when to use it and how to conjugate it.

2. Construction of the Passive Voice
The structure of the passive voice is very simple:
subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)
The main verb is always in its past participle form.

3. Examples of sentences form active voice to passive voice
ACTIVE VOICE = PASSIVE VOICE
I keep the butter in the fridge the butter is kept in the fridge
Mario paints the house the house in painted by mario
The students answer the questions the questions are answered by the ss.
My mother cooks the food the food is cooked by my mother
My father drives his new car the new car is driven by my father
I buy bread every Sunday bread is bought by me every sunday

4. main verb (past participle)
Look at these examples:
subject
auxiliary verb (to be)
main verb (past participle)
Water is
drunk
by everyone.
100 people
are
employed
by this company. I am
paid
in euro. We
not paid
in dollars.
Are
they
in yen?

5. Use of the Passive Voice
We use the passive when:
we want to make the active object more important
we do not know the active subject
subject
verb
object
give importance to active object (President Kennedy)
President Kennedy
was killed
by Lee Harvey Oswald.
active subject unknown
My wallet
has been stolen. ?

6. Examples of Passive Tense Subject Verb Object Simple Present Active:
Rita
writes
a letter.
Passive:
A letter
is written
by Rita.
Simple Past
wrote
was written
Present Perfect
has written
has been written
Future I
will write
will be written

7. Examples of Passive Tense Subject Verb Object Present Progressive
Active:
Rita
is writing
a letter.
Passive:
A letter
is being written
by Rita.
Past Progressive
was writing
was being written
Past Perfect
had written
had been written

8. Present passive voice the documents / print: the window / open:
the shoes / buy:
the car / wash:
the litter / throw away:
the letter / send:
the book / read / not:
the songs / sing / not:
the food / eat / not:
the shop / close / not:

9. More passive voice practice
He opens the door. -
We set the table. -
She pays a lot of money. -
I draw a picture. -
They wear blue shoes. -
They don't help you. -
He doesn't open the book. -
You do not write the letter. -
Does your mum pick you up? -
Does the police catch the thief? -