Passive Voice

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

¢  the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence

¢  the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)

¢  the subject of the active sentence becomes by Agent in the passive sentence (or is dropped)

¢  Only active sentence containing object which can be changed into passive form

¢  The two forms should have the same tenses

¢  IN A PASSIVE CLAUSE, WE USUALLY USE A PHRASE BEGINNING WITH BY IF WE WANT TO MENTION THE AGENT - THE PERSON OR THING THAT DOES THE ACTION, OR THAT CAUSES WHAT HAPPENS.
EXAMPLES:
MY MOTHER   MAKES   THE SANDWICH EVERY MORNING.
   SUBJECT     VERB1+S/ES      O     C (ADV. OF TIME)


THE SANDWICH  IS MADE  BY MY MOTHER EVERY MORNING.
SUBJECT    O BE+V3      AGENT            C (ADV. OF TIME)

¢  If you want to change an active sentence which has two objects into its passive forms, there are two ways:

¢  Make its indirect object into the subject of the passive sentence.

¢  Make its direct object into the subject of the passive sentence

WHAT ABOUT OTHER TENSES?
PRESENT CONTINUOUS : [ S + TO BE + BEING +V₃ (PAST PARTICIPLE)
PRESENT PERFECT: [ S + HAS/HAVE + BEEN + V₃ (PAST PARTICIPLE

Here are the xamples:

¢  A young boy is catching a butterfly.

¢  A butterfly is being caught by a young boy.

¢  Yano has returned the book to the library.

¢  The book has been returned to the library by Yano.

—  John  is giving  his girl-friend  a bunch of flower.

                         indirect object      direct object

—  Passive: The indirect object as the subject

                John’s girl-friend is being given a bunch of flower

or

—  Passive: The direct object as the subject

                A bunch of flower  is being given  to John’s girl-friend

               

Take a look at the followings:

¢  People don’t use bikes anymore

¢  Bikes are not used anymore

¢  Did the students play the cards in the class yesterday?

¢  Were the cards played in the class yesterday?

¢  And so on