the passive - the present and past simple (separate)

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

Today's goal

How to make and use the passive voice

At the end of the lesson you will know: 

So far, we have looked at active sentences. In an active sentence, we have: subject + verb + object.

• Jane kisses the baby. (The subject is ‘Jane’, the verb is ‘kisses’ and the object is ‘the baby’.)

However, sometimes we want to put the object first. Maybe we don’t know who did the action or we don’t want to say who did the action. Maybe the object is more important. In these cases, we can use the passive.

• The baby is kissed (by Julie).

We make the passive by using the verb ‘be’ and adding a past participle. 

 For example, here’s a normal, active sentence with an object.

• James cleans the kitchen.

This is the present simple tense. The main verb is ‘cleans’. The subject is ‘James’ and the object is ‘the kitchen’. To make the passive, we move the object to the front.

• The kitchen

Then we make the tense we need using the verb ‘be’. In this case, it’s the present simple.

• The kitchen is

Then we add the past participle of the main verb. In this case, the main verb is ‘clean’.

• The kitchen is cleaned

If we want, we can add the person who does the cleaning (or whatever the main verb is) using ‘by’.• The kitchen is cleaned by James. 

Present simple

active

he/she/it + verb + (e)s

I/we/you/they + verb

Present simple

passive

am/is/are + past participle

Now you:
I eat an apple.

He opens the door.

They pay a lot of money.

He draws a picture.

They wear blue shoes.

passive

active

walks

beat

is thrown

are broken

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We can make the passive of the past simple in the same way, using the past simple of the verb ‘be’.

• Active:       Someone stole my bike.

• Passive:    My bike was stolen (by someone).

• Active:       We ate all the cake.

• Passive:    All the cake was eaten (by us).

• Active:       He fixed the computer.

• Passive:    The computer was fixed (by him).

Past simple

active

regular verb: verb + ed

irregular verb: 2nd form

Past simple

passive

was/were + past participle

Now you:
I found the key.

We made mistakes.

Jane fixed the computer.

Somebody stole my bike.

My grandfather built this house.

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Now choose between the present simple and the past simple

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