Passive Voice - Basic Notions

Question	Answer
PASSIVE VOICE	We use it when the ACTION is more important than the AGENT or when we don't know him/ her
STRUCTURE	BE + PAST PARTICIPLE "The police arrested one protester" "One protester was arrested"
PRESENT SIMPLE	"We build hundreds of houses every year" "Hundreds of houses are built every year"
PRESENT CONTINUOUS	"The authorities are questioning two men" "Two men are being questioned by the authorities"
PAST SIMPLE	"That waiter served the meal" "the meal was served by that waiter"
PAST CONTINUOUS	"They were building a new shopping center" "A new shopping center was being built"
PRESENT PERFECT	"We have chosen Helen as the new president" "Helen has been chosen as the new president"
PAST PERFECT	"John had taken the pictures before his camera broke" "The pictures had been taken by John before his camera broke"
FUTURE "WILL"	"They will play the match tomorrow" "The match will be played tomorrow"
AGENT "BY"	To identify WHO did the action "Stones were thrown by angry fooball fans"
INSTRUMENT "WITH"	What was used to perform and action. "The windows were broken with a baseball bat"
WITHOUT THE AGENT	- when it's not known - when it's obvious - when it's not necessary / unimportant
VERBS WITH TWO OBJECTS: buy, give, lend, offer, promise, sell, take, promise, send, etc.	ACTIVE > "Peter gave Karen a present" PASSIVE 1 > "Karen was given a present by Peter" PASSIVE 2 > "A present was given TO Karen by Peter"

Resource summary

	Created by Florencia Soledad almost 9 years ago