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Mary Stangler Center for Academic Success ESOL Center JJ 12/2017
The Passive Voice
Passive voice is usually used as a way of shifting the focus of the sentence to the object.
We keep the butter here. => The butter is kept here.
We do not mention the agent (subject) because:
It is unknown (His car has been stolen. (by someone));
Unimportant (I was told to remain silent.(in general));
Obvious (Linda has been arrested. (the police));
People in general (Bicycles are widely used in China.(by people who live there));
To conceal the agent or distance yourself from the action (The original has been
destroyed. (by someone you do not know or do not want to reveal))
Ditransitive verbs (two objects) such as promise, sell, tell, bring, lend, pass, pay, give, teach,
show, etc. form passive in two ways:
Active: He gave the receptionist the key.
Passive 1: The receptionist was given the key. (Indirect object)
Passive 2: The key was given to the receptionist. (Direct object)
It is usually the indirect object that becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
Building passive:
Present simple: am, is, are + past participle (Homework is done (by me).)
Present continuous: am, is, are + being + pp (Homework is being done.)
Present perfect: have, has + been + pp (Homework has been done.)
Simple past: was, were + pp (Homework was done.)
Past simple continuous: was, were + being + pp (Homework was being done.)
Past perfect: had + been + pp (Homework had been done.)
Past perfect continuous: had + been + being + pp (Homework had been being done.)
Future simple: will be +pp (Homework will be done.)
Modals: can, must +be (Homework must be done)