Passive V4

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Entrance ticket

In pairs write the answers to the following questions on your whiteboards. Are these Active or Passive sentences?

1) He drove so hard that he crashed the car.

2) All inhabitants were unaware of what had happened the previous night.

3) I was taken hostage and was uncertain of my fate.

 

Entrance ticket

In pairs write the answers to the following questions on your whiteboards. Make passive:

1) Somebody has cleaned the rooms.

2) They have built a new hotel near the airport.

3) Nobody swept the floor yesterday.

The passive in a nutshell

In a passive sentence it is not important who does it, but what is done.

Example: I eat an apple. - An apple is eaten by me.

The passive in a nutshell

Three steps to make an active sentence passive:

1) Find the object (lijdend voorwerp/meewerkend voorwerp) in the sentence and make that the subject (onderwerp).

2) Look at the what tense is used and keep that tense in the passive sentence.

3) Put 'by zombies' behind the passive sentence.

The passive in a nutshell

A passive consists of a form of 'to be' (am, are, is, was, were, been) + past participle (voltooid deelwoord).

The form of 'to be' is translated with a form of the verb 'worden' in Dutch.

Examples: (use whiteboards)

The mouse was eaten. 

The mouse has been eaten. 

P

Practise in pairs

Do exercises 1-4 on pp. 80-81. (15 minutes)

Check with answer key.

Early finishers do ex. 1 (p. 82), 4 (p. 83), 1 (p. 86)

Evaluation

1) Why do we use the passive voice in written texts?

2) How do we make a passive voice?

Make passive:
People say the root of the plant cures backache.

Make passive:
Mr Davies demonstrated the procedure to us in the chemistry lab.

Make passive:
People claim this temple is the oldest in the world.

Make passive:
The medical staff have declared the surgery a complete success.

Task

Write an article for a schoolpaper. Think about what kind of topic you would like to write about. Use both active and passive verb forms. Use about 150 words.