The Passive Voice

1. Raúl Holtermann Gil

2. What is passive voice?
• In English, all sentences are in either "active"
or "passive" voice:
• active: Werner Heisenberg formulated the
uncertainty principle in 1927.
• passive: The uncertainty principle was
formulated by Werner Heisenberg in 1927.

3. The Passive
S + To Be + V(III)
• Simple present
She waters the flowers everyday
The Flowers are watered everyday (by her)

4. Present Continuous
She is watering the flowers now
The flowers are being watered now (by her)

5. Present Perfec
She has watered the flowers today
The flowers have been watered today (by her)

6. Present Perfec Continuous
She has been watering the flowers this morning
The flowers have been being watered this
morning (by her)

7. Simple Past
She watered the flowers yesterday
The flowers were watered yesterday (by her)

8. Past Continuous
She was watering the flowers yesterday when…
The flowers were being watered yesterday (by
her) when…

9. Past Perfec
She had watered the flowers when…
The flowers had been watered (by her) when…

10. Past Perfec Continuous
She had been watering the flowers when…
The flowers had been being watered (by her)
when…

11. Simple Future
She will water the flowers in the future
Thw flowers will be watered in the future (by
her)

12. Going to
She is going to water the flowers from now on
The flowers are going to be watered from now
on (by her)

13. Passive + Modal verbs
S + Modal Verbs + be + V(III)
She must water the flowers in the morning
The flowers must be watered in the morning (by
her)

14. Choose 5 sentences in the active voice
and turn them into passive voice.
• Mark Twain wrote "The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer" in 1876.
“The adventures of Tom Sawyer” was written
in 1876 (by him)
• They make many movies in Hollywood.
Many movies are made in hollywood (by
them)

15. • The students will give a presentation
tomorrow.
A Presentation will be given tomorrow (by
them)
• The children have eaten the cookies.
The cookies have been eaten (by them)
• I must be repaired the bike in the morning
The bike musn´t be repaired in the morning
(by me)