1. HOW
THE
PASSIVE
IS
MADE
María del Carmen
Gallegos Fernández

2. USE OF THE PASSIVE VOICE
•
•
•
•
•
•
When the agent is not known
When the agent is ‘people in general’
When the agent is unimportant, or is obvious
When we don’t want to say who the agent is
To describe procedures and processes
To avoid repeating the agent in a description
or narrative

3. FORM OF THE PASSIVE VOICE
The passive voice is made with the following structure:
SUBJECT + AUXILIARY VERB TO BE + PAST PARTICIPLE
Present Simple
They sell apartments ➡ Apartments are sold
Past Simple
They sold apartments ➡ Apartments were sold
Present Perfect
They have sold apartments ➡ Apartments have been sold
Past Perfect
Simple
They had sold apartments ➡ Apartments had been sold
Future will
They will sell apartments ➡ Apartments will be sold
Future going to
They are going to sell apartments ➡ Apartments are going to be sold
Modals
They can/must/should sell apartments ➡ Apartments can/must/should be sold

4. ACTIVE TO PASSIVE CHANGES
• The object of the active sentence turns into the subject of the passive sentence:
They drank millions of beers at the party ➡
Millions of beers were drunk at the party
• The main verb is substituted for the auxiliary to be, in the same tense, plus the past
participle of the main verb:
The government will raise taxes next year ➡
Taxes will be raised next year
• If we mention the agent of the action in the passive sentence, then we place it
preceded by the preposition ‘by’:
The King has welcomed the new ambassadors ➡
The new ambassadors have been welcomed by the King.

5. EXAMPLES
1) The teacher gave me a good book ➡
I was given a good book by the teacher
2) Kelly Rowland will publish a new book by Christmas ➡
A new book will be published by Kelly Rowland by Christmas
3) A young man had shot eighty people in the streets of London ➡
Eighty people had been shot by a a young man in the streets
of London
4) Factories spill toxic substances into the rivers everyday ➡
Toxic substances are spilled into the rivers everyday
5) Citizens should take out the garbage at 6 pm ➡
The garbage should be taken out at 6 pm