Passive voice | English Grammar Guide23/03/2015 (/)Home (/)/English Grammar (/english-grammar/english-grammar-guide/)/Verbs (/english-grammar/verbs/)PASSIVE VOICEFUNCTIONS OF THE PASSIVE VOICEThe passive voice is used to show interest in the person or object that experiences an action rather than theperson or object that performs the action. In other words, the most important thing or person becomes thesubject of the sentence.EXAMPLESThe passive voice is used frequently. (= we are interested in the passive voice, not in who uses it.)The house was built in 1654. (= we are interested in the house, not in who built it.)The road is being repaired. (= we are interested in the road, not in the people who are doing therepairs.)Sometimes we use the passive voice because we don't know or do not want to express who performed theaction.EXAMPLESI noticed that a window had been left open.Every year thousands of people are killed on our roads.All the cookies have been eaten.1/6http://www.edufind.com/englishgrammar/passivevoice/\pard\sect\sectd\sbkpagePassive voice | English Grammar Guide23/03/2015My car has been stolen!The passive voice is often used in formal texts. Switching to the active voice will make your writing clearerand easier to read.ActivePassiveA few well-chosen words convey a great deal ofA great deal of meaning is conveyed by a few well-meaning.chosen words.A mass of gases wrap around our planet.Our planet is wrapped in a mass of gases.The city disposes of waste materials in a varietyWaste materials are disposed of in a variety of ways.of ways.If we want to say who or what performs the action while using the passive voice, we use the preposition by.When we know who performed the action and are interested in him, it is always better to switch to the activevoice instead.ActivePassiveThe Beatles wrote "A Hard Day's Night"."A Hard Day's Night" was written by the Beatles.Spielberg directed the movie ET.The movie ET was directed by Spielberg.My father built this house.This house was built by my father.Read more aboutthe passive voice and active equivalents (/english-grammar/passive-voice-active-voice/) forall English verb tenses.FORMING THE PASSIVE VOICEThe passive voice in English is composed of two elements:the appropriate form of the verb 'to be' + past participleNegative InterrogativeInterrogativeNegativeAffirmativeWasn't the house built inWas the house built inThe house wasn't built inThe house was built in1899?1899?1899.1899.Weren't these housesWere these housesThese houses weren'tThese houses werebuild in 1899?built in 1899?built in 1899.built in 1899.2/6http://www.edufind.com/englishgrammar/passivevoice/\pard\sect\sectd\sbkpagePassive voice | English Grammar Guide23/03/2015TO CLEAN, PASSIVE VOICE+ rest of sentence+ past participle+ to be (conjugated)SubjectSimple presentevery day.cleanedisThe housePresent continuousat the moment.cleanedis beingThe houseSimple pastyesterday.cleanedwasThe house\uc1\u57619XPast continuouslast week.cleanedwas beingThe housePresent perfectsince you left.cleanedhas beenThe housePast perfectbefore they arrived.cleanedhad beenThe houseFuturenext week.cleanedwill beThe houseFuture continuoustomorrow.cleanedwill be beingThe housePresent conditionalif they had visitors.cleanedwould beThe housePast conditionalif it had been dirty.cleanedwould have beenThe houseInifinitive3/6http://www.edufind.com/englishgrammar/passivevoice/Thank you trying Quick PDF Converter Suite.Please note that Quick PDF Converter Suite trial version converts only limited pages of your document.To convert your complete document, you need to purchase Quick PDF Converter Suite.To order, please visit: http://www.quickpdftoword.com/orb_order_now.asp