Active Active &Passive Voice&Passive Voice

1. Purposes of Passive Voice2. Structure of Passive Voice Verbs3. Passive Voice in Tenses4. Exercises

1. Purposes of Passive Voice

1. When the doer of an action is not know

2. When the object of an action is the emphasis

1.1 When the doer is not known

Example:

The window has been broken. Who has broken it?

In this case, we do not know who broke the window. Instead of starting the sentence with ‘Somebody has broken the window.’, we can also start the sentence with the window.

1.2 When the object of the action is the emphasis

Example:This murderous killer was sentenced a life’s

imprisonment.

In this case, we do not care about who made the judgement. Instead, our emphasis is put on the murderous killer. So, we start the sentence with ‘the killer’.

2. Structure of Passive Voice Verbs

Grammatical Structure

Active ----------------------- Passive

e.g. eats ----------------------- is eaten

i.e. verb ----------------------- be+p.p.

3. Passive Voice in Tenses

3.1 Present TensesBy using the verb ‘eat’, Tenses Active Passive

Present – Simple -eats -is / are eaten

-kill -is / are killed

-cut -is /are cut

3. Passive Voice in Tenses

3.2 Past TensesBy using the verb ‘eat’,

Tenses Active Passive

Past - Simple -ate - was / were eaten

-clean - was / were cleaned

-put - was / were put

3. Passive Voice in Tenses

3.3 Future TenseBy using the verb ‘eat’, Tense Active Passive

Future - Simple -will eat - will be eaten

-will collect - will be collected

-will shut - will be shut

4. Exercises

Example: People speak Emglish in many countries

Compare: English is spoken in many countries.

Somebody/They pulled down the building last week.

Compare: The old building was pulled down (by then/somebody)last week.

We will hold a meeting tomorrow.

Compare: A meeting will be held tomorrow (by us).

* ( ) means optional.

Exercise

1. Somebody cleans our classroom every day.

2. Japan exported millions of cars last year.

3. Mr. Chan will feed his dog on canned food.

Our classroom is cleaned everyday

Millions of cars were exported from Japan last year.

Mr. Chan’s god will be fed on canned food.

Find out whether the following sentences are 'active' or 'passive'.

• I washed my car three weeks ago. (active)• The dishes were washed and put away.(passive)• John's hair was cut short. (passive)• Joe always helps his classmates. (active)• The shirts will be ironed. (passive)• Milk is collected every day. (passive)• Mum cooks meals for us. (active)• Tom will invite his good friends to his party. (active)• Lily was bored by the movie. (passive)