9

Passive Voice

The Passive voice is formed by means of the auxiliary verb “to be” in the required form and participle II. We use the passive voice when we want to say what hap­pens to subject:

• The building is quite new. It was built two years ago. The food is kept here.

THE ENGLISH TENSES IN THE PASSIVE VOICE

Tense		Present	Past	Future	Future-in-the-Past
Indefinite	to be asked	am is asked are Is she asked? She is not asked	was asked were Was she asked? She was not asked	shall be asked will be Will he be asked? He won’t be asked	should be asked would be
Continuous	to be being asked	am is being asked are	was being asked were	_______________	____________
Perfect	to have been asked	have been asked has been	had been asked	shall have been asked will have been	should have been asked would have been
Perfect Continuous	­­­­­_________	_______________	______________	_________________	______________

Formation Tenses in Passive Voice

Tenses	Active	Passive
Present simple	We bake the bread here.	The bread is baked here. BE + 3V= am/is/are + 3V
Present continuous	We are baking the bread.	The bread is being baked. BE + being + 3V
Present Perfect	We have baked the bread.	The bread has been baked. Have/has been + 3V
Past simple	We baked the bread yesterday.	The bread was baked yesterday. BE (was/were) + 3V
Past Continuous	We were baking the bread.	The bread was being baked. BE + being + 3V
Past Perfect	We had baked the bread.	The bread had been baked. Had been + 3V
Future Indefinite	We will bake the bread next.	The bread will be baked next. Will/shall be + 3V
Future Perfect (seldom used)	We will have baked the bread by then.	The bread will have been baked (will be baked) by then.
Going to	We are going to bake the bread.	The bread is going to be baked. Be going + to be +3V
Modal verbs: should ought to be + 3V have to can might/may	We should bake the bread soon. We ought to bake the bread. We have to repair the machine. How can we solve the problem? They might announce the news soon. We must do this now.	The bread should be baked soon. Should be +3V The bread ought to be baked. Ought to be +3V The machine has to be repaired. Have to +3V How can the problem be solved? Can be +3V The news might be announced soon. Might be + 3V This must be done now. Must be + 3V

By & with are often used with the Passive Voice: By means the doer of the action, with means the device of the action.

The house was built by my father. The test was written by pupils in pencils.

The house was built with building devices.

Active Voice

Passive Voice

Alexander Bell invented the telephone. subject (agent) object (An agent is a person or thing doing the action) We say Bell invented the telephone because we are talking about Bell, and the new information is that he invented the telephone. When the subject is the agent, then we use an active verb.

A. The telephone was invented by Alexander Bell. Subject object (agent) We say The telephone was invented by Bell because we are talking about the telephone, and the new information is that it was invented by Bell. When the subject is not the agent, we use a passive verb. In this sentence the subject the telephone is not the agent, it is the thing that the action is directed at. B. When we want to say who or what did the action, we use by. On our way home we were stopped by the police. The paper was all blown away by the wind. The thing that is used to perform an action is called “the instrument”. If we want to include this we use with. He was hit on the head with a hammer. C. We can give other details about the action. For example, we can use a phrase saying when or where something happens. The telephone was invented in 1876. The visitors will be driven to the airport. The concerts are usually held at the university. D. Sometimes there is no phrase after the verb. A new swimming pool is being built. All the documents have been destroyed.