THE PASSIVE VOICE

UNIT 5

IMPORTANT ASPECTS• Structure: be + past participle.• What do we use it for?* When the agent (who or what causes the action)

is obvious, unknown or unimportant.e.g. A lot of money was stolen in the robbery.* When we want to say what happens to the

subject.e.g. His father was killed in the war.• When we want to say who does or what causes

the action, we use by + noun. e.g. The English Channel was crossed first by

Louis Bleirot.

Turning active sentences into passive

Active: They built this house in 1486.

Passive: This house was built in 1486.

Careful! Intransitive verbs do not take passive structures, for instance die, arrive, happen, exist, sleep, have, come, occur, fit, lack, live, etc.

Check your Grammar Reference and English Grammar in Use to see how the verbs change from active to passive.

VERBS WITH TWO OBJECTS• In active sentences you can find two

possible structures:

A Verb + indirect object + direct object

e.g. She gave her sister the car.

B Verb + direct obj + preposition + indirect obj

e.g. She gave the car to her sister.

• The passive sentence will be as follows:

A Her sister was given the car.(IO=S)

B The car was given to her sister. (DO=S)