Passive voice

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

The Passive Voice

What is the Passive Voice?

The verb be in the right tense 

+

 p.p (past participle)

Example:

The students made a good short film

 

A good short film  was made by the students

Active

Passive

Which one is Passive Voice?

1. He slammed the door on his way out
2. The person walked for three hours
3. The music was stopped suddenly
4. They laughed at the dad joke

Which one is Passive Voice?

1. The farmer is harvesting the corn.
2. The farmer has harvested the corn.
3. The corn is harvested by the farmer.
4. Harvesting corn is a heavy job.

How do we turn Active Voice into Passive Voice?

1. Identify the object of the sentence

2. Place the object at the start of the sentence as the subject

3. Look at the tense of the main verb 

(Is it in the Present Simple? , Past Simple?...)  

4. Put the verb be in the corresponding tense  &

 the past participle of the main verb

Subject

Verb

Object

Someone

stopped

the music

Subject

Verb

Object

The music

was stopped

by someone

Turn into the Passive Voice:

Someone is drinking juice

1. Juice is being drunk
2. Juice has been drunk
3. Juice was drunk
4. Juice is drunk

Jack built a house.

1. A house is being built (by Jack).
2. A house was built (by Jack).
3. A house is built (by Jack).
4. A house will be built (by Jack).

Tom has painted the entire house.

1. The entire house will be painted by Tom.
2. The entire house was being painted by Tom.
3. Tom has been painting the entire house.
4. The entire house has been painted by Tom.

They say young people are experts with technology

1. It is said that young people are experts with technology.
2. It was said that young people are experts with technology
3. It is said that young people to be experts with technology
4. It is said that young people were experts with technology

They claim he is the best Tik Toker

1. He was claimed to be the best Tik Toker
2. He is claimed that he is the best Tik Toker
3. He is claimed to be the best Tik Toker
4. He is claimed to have been the best Tik Toker

Rewrite in the Passive Voice:
Jane was reading a book

Rewrite the sentence using the passive voice:

"They had downloaded the video illegally"

Rewrite the sentence using the passive voice:

"They gave me a book"

Rewrite the sentence using the passive voice:

"The teacher let John use the tablet"

Rewrite the sentence using the passive voice:

"The coach made me run 15 kms"

When do you think
we can use passive voice?

We use the Passive Voice 

1. to focus on the action
2. to be formal
3.  when it is unclear or obvious who/what did the action

" The chores are done" 

" my car was stolen yesterday"

"mistakes were made"