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In the sentence The dog chased the cat, the verb (chased) is active. If
you turn it around, and say The cat was chased by the dog, the verb
(was chased) is passive. You form the passive by using the verb be and
the past participle of the main verb. For example, the passive of attack
is be attacked, the passive of pay is be paid, and the passive of see is
be seen. You can only use the passive with transitive verbs.
You use an active verb when you want to say that the subject of a
sentence does something. For example:
You use a passive verb when you want to say that something happens
to the subject of the sentence. For example:
You often use a passive verb when talking about the history of
something. For example:
In these cases, it is much more natural to use the passive than to find
a vague, active way of expressing the sentence (such as Someone
built this bridge in the 19th century.).
You often use a passive verb when you are writing about science, or
when you are saying how things are made. For example:
If you used an active verb here, you would have to say who does the
action
information which is not known or not important.
1
If you want to say who does the action of the verb in a passive
sentence, use by and then say who does it.
1. Move the subject of the active verb to the end of the sentence, and
put by in front of it.
2. Move the object of the active verb to the front of the sentence, so
that it becomes the passive subject.
3. Change the verb from active to passive. You do this by adding a form
of the auxiliary verb be and the past participle of the main verb.
You can also make a passive using get instead of be. This kind of
passive is very common in conversation. Do not use it in formal
writing. You often use this kind of passive to say that something
happened suddenly to someone.
You can also use the passive with get when you want to suggest that
an action is more forceful or more important to you.