Grammatical explanation of the passive voice form.

1. THE PASSIVE VOICE

2. There are twotypes of passivevoicesentences: 1.- Passivevoicewithagent. 2. Passivevoicewithoutagent.

3. 1. Passivevoicewithagent: Thesesentences are thetransformation of active sentenceslikethisone: “TheRomansoldiersdestroyedthecitywalls” where “TheRomansoldiers” isthesubject. “destroyed” istheverbphrase. And“thecitywalls” isthedirectobject.

4. How do wetransforman active sentenceinto a passivesentence? Wemustfollowthreesteps…

5. Step 1 Thedirectobjet of the active sentencebecomesthesubject (Pacient) of thepassivesentence: Active “TheRomansoldiersdestroyedthecitywalls” Passive “Thecitywalls…” isthepacientsubject.

6. Step 2 Theverbchangeslikethis: Weputtheverb “tobe” in the tense of the active voicesentence, followedbythe original verb in thepastparticipleform. “TheRomansoldiersdestroyedthecitywalls” Theverbis “destroy” in past simple, so in thepassivevoicewewillhave: “Thecitywallsweredestroyed…”

7. Step 3 The active subject (TheRomansoldiers), becomestheAgent, alwaysintroducedbythepreposition “by”. Thisway: “TheRomansoldiersdestroyedthecitywalls” becomes “ThecitywallsweredestroyedbytheRomansoldiers”

8. Otherexamples: 1.-“Thepolicemencaughtthethief.” Passive: “Thethiefwascaughtbythepolicemen.” 2.- “Thelionswereeating a zebra.” Passive: “A zebrawasbeingeatenbythelions.” 3.-”TheJapanesehaveinvented a new computer.” Passive: “A new computer has beeninventedbytheJapanese.”

9. 4.- “Spain won theWorld Cup in 2010.” Passive: “TheWorld Cup was won bySpain in 2010.” 5.- “Mary ismakingthecoffee.” Passive:“Thecoffeeisbeingmadeby Mary.”

10. 2. Passivevoicewithoutagent. Thetransformations are thesame, buttheagentdoesnotappear in thepassivevoicesentence, becauseitisnotimportantoritisnotknown. Forexample: “Wefindadvertisingeverywhere.” In passivevoiceis “Advertisingisfoundeverywhere” (byus).

11. Passivevoicesentenceswithoutagentusually come from active sentenceswithsubjectslike: Somebody, someone, they, people, etc…Subjectsthat do notgivemuchimportantinformation.

12. Examples of passivevoicewithoutagent are: 1.- People admire goodsingers. Passive: “Goodsingers are admired.” 2.- Somebody has brokenthewindow. Passive: “Thewindow has beenbroken.” 3.- They are building a new town hall. Passive: “A new town hall isbeingbuilt.”

13. 4.- Nobody has photographedthebaby. Passive: “Thebabyhasn’tbeenphotographed .” 5.- Someonestolethe new car yesterday. Passivevoice: “The new car wasstolenyesterday.”

14. DIFFERENT FORMS OF TO BE IN THE PASSIVE VOICE

15. Negative and Questions Thefirstelement in theverbphraseiscalledtheoperator. Forexample: “The car wasbeingstolen.” Thisistheoperator Theoperatoris in charge of questions and answers.

16. “People spend a lot of money on stupid things.” AFFIRMATIVE “A lot of money is spent on stupid things” INTERROGATIVE “Is a lot of moneyspentonstupidthings? NEGATIVE “A lot of moneyisn’tspentonstupidthings.”

17. THE END