1. Passive voice
1

2. Passive Voice
There are two special forms for verbs called voice:
 Active voice
 Passive voice
Passive voice makes sense when the agent
performing the action is obvious, unimportant, or
unknown.
The passive voice is effective in such circumstances
because it highlights the action and what is acted
upon rather than the agent performing the action.2

3. To create a passive sentence, you
must know:
 Who is the person (the "agent") of the
action? (the "doer")
 Who is the object (the "receiver) of the
action?
3

4. RECEIVER
(coin)
ACTIVE
Somebody flipped a coin to
decide who would go first.
(He is unimportant.)
AGENT
(person doing
the flip)
PASSIVE
A coin was flipped to decide who would
go first.
(Focus on the coin flip.)
4

5. AGENT
(aggressor)
ACTIVE
John was shaking his little
brother, Jimmy.
(Focus on aggressor .)
RECEIVER
(victim)
PASSIVE
Jimmy was being shaken by John.
(Focus on victim.)
5

6. The Passive is formed:
Passive Subject + To Be + Past Participle
It is often used in business and in other areas where
the object of the action is more important than those
who perform the action.
For Example:
We have produced over 20 different models in
the past two years.
Changes to:
Over 20 different models have been produced
in the past two years. 6

7. The object of the active verb becomes
the subject of the passive verb:
subject Verb Object
Active
Cats eat fish.
subject Verb Object
Passive are
Fish by cats
eaten 7

8. If the agent (the performer of the
action) is important, use "by“.
For Example:
Tim Wilson wrote "The Flight to Brunnswick"
in 1987.
Changes to:
"The Flight to Brunnswick" was written in
1987 by Tim Wilson.
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9. Time
Active Passive
Reference
They make Fords in Fords are made in Cologne. Present Simple
Cologne.
Dinner is being cooked by Present
Susan is cooking dinner.
Susan Continuous
James Joyce wrote "Dubliners" was written Past Simple
"Dubliners". by James Joyces.
They were painting the The house was being Past
house when I arrived. painted when I arrived. Continuous
They have produced over Over 20 models have been
20 models in the past two produced in the past two Present Perfect
years. years.
They are going to build a A new factory is going to Future Intention
new factory in Portland. be built in Portland. with Going to
It will be finished tomorrow. 9
Future Simple
I will finish it tomorrow.