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ENGLISH GRAMMAR

PASSIVE FORM OF VERBS
Formation and use, with examples and exercises.

ACTIVE VOICE :
A verb is said to be in the Active Voice when its subject acts, or when the emphasis in on the doer or the subject.

PASSIVE VOICE :
A verb is in the Passive Voice when the subject is being acted upon, or when the emphasis is on the object or the action done.

The passive form (voice) of verbs is formed with the appropriate tense of BE + the past participle :

For example : English is spoken here.

Only verbs which take an object (transitive verbs) can be put into the passive.
For example: Tom catches the ball. / The ball was caught by Tom.

Verbs that have no object (intransitive verbs) such as: come, go, happen, live, sleep, etc. cannot be put into the passive.

Please note that the Present Perfect Continuous, the Past Perfect Continuous and the Future Continuous are not usually used in the passive form.

  • We use the active form of a verb to say what a subject does:
    • The chef cooks food every day.
  • We use the passive form to say what happens to the subject:
    • Food is cooked every day.
  • The subject of a passive verb corresponds to the object of an active verb :
    • Food is cooked every day. (Passive).
    • The chef cooks food every day. (Active)

  • We sometimes used get to form the passive:
    • Be careful with that sharp knife. Someone might get hurt!
    • The cat got run over by a car.

  • We use the passive form of a verb:

    -     when the person who performs the action (agent) is unknown.

    -     when it is not important who does the action, or

    - when we are more interested in the action that in the agent (instructions, reports, etc.)

    • The letter was delivered at 9 a.m.
      The identity of the person who delivered the letter is unknown or unimportant.
      If we want to say who delivered the letter, we use 'by':
      The letter was delivered by the postman.
    • The tax reforms were announced today, or
      The tax reforms were announced by the Prime Minister.
Verb Tense Active Passive
Infinitive: To cook To be cooked
Present Simple I cook food in the kitchen. Food is cooked in the kitchen.
Present Continuous I am cooking  food in the kitchen. Food is being cooked in the kitchen.
Present Perfect Simple I have cooked food in the kitchen. Food has been cooked in the kitchen.
Past Simple I cooked food in the kitchen. Food was cooked in the kitchen.
Past Continuous I was cooking food in the kitchen. Food was being cooked in the kitchen.
Past Perfect I had cooked food in the kitchen. Food had been cooked in the kitchen.
Future I will cook food in the kitchen. Food will be cooked in the kitchen.
Future Perfect I will have cooked food in the kitchen. Food will have been cooked in the kitchen.
Conditional I I would cook food in the kitchen Food would be cooked in the kitchen.
Conditional II I would have cooked food in the kitchen. Food would have been cooked in the kitchen.

MORE EXAMPLES:

Active Passive
The children ate the cookies. The cookies were eaten by the children.
I don't know how we can solve the problem. I don't know how the problem can be solved.
I saw Bruno at the football match. Bruno was seen at the football match.
He is planting flowers in the garden. Flowers are being planted in the garden.
We have painted the kitchen. The kitchen has been painted.
The plumber will repair the leak. The leak will be repaired (by the plumber).

  exercise n°1      exercise n° 2        exercise n°3   

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