Passive Voice
Enviado por Lizeemtz • 25 de Septiembre de 2014 • 785 Palabras (4 Páginas) • 214 Visitas
Use of Passive
Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known; however, who or what is performing the action.
Example: My bike was stolen.
In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who did it. Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows:
Example: A mistake was made.
Form of Passive
Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular verbs)
Example: A letter was written.
When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:
the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)
Present simple Past simple
Structure: Subject + am/are/is +Participle Structure: Subject + was/were + Participle
Passive Passive
I am beaten I was beaten
You are beaten You were beaten
He is beaten He was beaten
She is beaten She was beaten
We are beaten We were beaten
You are beaten You were beaten
They are beaten They were beaten
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