THE PASSIVE

THE PASSIVE
One and the same idea can often be expressed in two
different ways, by means of an active, and by means of a
passive construction.

FORMS
Passives can be formed in the following ways:
A tense of BE + past
1- participle
Active: He cooks/has cooked/will cook/is cooking the food.
Passive: The food is/has been/will be/ is being cooked.
Modal+ be/have been+ past
2- participle
Active: He may cook/ may have cooked the food
Passive: The food may be/have been cooked.

THE PASSIVE (FORMS)

3- Infinitive:To be/ to have been + past
participle
Active: He is/was to cook the food.
Passive: The food is to be/ was to have been cooked.
4- -Ing form:being/having been + past
participle
Active: I dont
like people bullying me.
Passive: I dont like being bullied.
Active: Having signed the deal, we went out to celebrate.
Passive: The deal having been signed, we went out to
celebrate.

NOTES ON THE FORM OF THE PASSIVE

Transitive verbs: The passive occurs only with verbs used transitively,
that is, verbs that can be followed by an object:
Active: Mary feeds the dogs.
Passive: The dogs are fed by Mary.
Direct and Indirect objects (verbs with two objects)
Verbs like bring, allow, award, buy, feed, give, grant, hand, lend, offer,
owe, pass, post, promise, read, send, show, take, tell, throw and write;
can have two passive forms:
Active: They offered the customer a refund.
Passive (1): The customer was offered a refund
Passive (2): A refund was offered to the customer.
It is more usual to begin the sentence with the person. However, either
object can become the subject of the passive verb.
If the object of the passive verb is the indirect object of the active verb it
is introduced with to, e.g to the customer.

NOTES ON THE FORMS OF THE PASSIVE

Progressive forms: Only present and past progressive
forms are common.
Active: They are/were interviewing him
Passive: He is/was being interviewed.
Multi-word verbs: If a phrasal verb has an object, we
can usually make it passive. We never separate the parts
of the verb in the passive form:
Active: They took the company over in 2010.
Passive: The company was taken over in 2010.
Verbs followed by a preposition take the preposition
immediately after them when turned into passive:
Active: They accused him of murder (accuse sb of sth)
Passive: He was accused of murder.

NOTES ON THE FORMS OF THE PASSIVE

Passive infinitives
To refer to the present or future: Children like to be
praised when they do well at school.
To refer to the past: Stonehenge is the greatest
monument to have been built by the ancient Britons.
In reported speech with ask for + object: Inspector
Pascoe asked for the prisoners to be held in the cells
overnight.
Verbs generally used in the passive
A small number of verbs are used more frequently in the
passive than in the active. Be born, be married, be
obliged:
Eg. I was born in 1995.

NOTES ON THE FORMS OF THE PASSIVE

Verbs not used in the passive
Verbs

Examples

Intransitive verbs
(verbs with no direct
object)

The visitors were arrived

early
The visitors arrived early

Verb + object + to
infinitive

He was wanted to leave

She wanted him to leave

Stative verbs

A Ferrari is had by John

John has a Ferrari

Have + noun to
describe an action

Lunch is being had by

John
Johns having lunch

USES
Spontaneous and deliberate use
Its more natural than the active: English is spoken all
over the world.
Deliberate because the speaker doesnt wish to commit
him/her self to opinions or facts of which she/he is not
completely certain: This problem will be solved as soon
as possible.
Focus
We are interested more in the action than the
person/thing that carries it out/ causes it: Our roof was
damaged in last nights storm.

USES
Avoiding vague words (someone, a person, people, etc)
Eg. After my talk, I was asked to explain a point I had made.
Avoiding an awkward change of subject
Eg. The Prime Minister arrived back in London last night, and was
immediately besieged by reporters. (and reporters immediately
besieged him)
To make a statement sound impersonal: we want to avoid
personal responsibility
Eg. This room must be tidied up
In account of processes and scientific experimients
Eg. Minutes are taken and then submitted to the chair of approval.
To make statements more polite
Eg. My new dress has been ruined. (more polite than you ruined
it)

THE AGENT
Not mentioning the agent
You dont know who or what the agent is
Eg. Hes been murdered.
It is not important who or what the agent is
Eg. Wars have been fought throughout history
It is obvious from the context or from general
knowledge
Eg. The parcel is being delivered at midday. (obviously
by the delivery company)
The agent has already been mentioned before
Eg. The Governor thought for a moment. Then, a decision
was made.

THE AGENT
Mentioning the agent
To put emphasis on the agent:
Eg. The Pyramids were built by the ancient Egyptians.
With verbs like build, compose, damage, design,
destroy, discover, invent, make, wreck and write:
Eg. Who composed that piece? It was composed by
Mozart.
We use with+instrument to say what the agent used to
carry out the action
Eg. The cake was made with eggs, flour and butter.

OTHER PASSIVE STRUCTURES

Personal and Impersonal constructions
When we want to describe an impersonal or general feeling
(not something said by a particular person), or we dont
want to mention the person whose words are being
reported, we use personal or impersonal constructions.
With the verbs agree, assume, believe, consider, decide,
declare, expect, feel, hope, know, report, say, show,
suggest, suppose, think,
understand:
Subject+
passive verb+ to+
Personal construction:infinitive
It+ passive verb+ that
Impersonal construction:
clause
Eg. People believe he is a liar.
He is believed to be a liar. (personal construction)
It is believed that he is a liar. (impersonal construction)

OTHER PASSIVE STRUCTURES

Passives with get
In informal English, get can be used instead of be in passive forms
which describe actions.
Eg. Go away or youll get caught by the cops.

Make, let, help and hear.

With the verbs make (meaning force or require), see, hear and help
we make active sentences with verb+object+ infinitive without to.
But in the passive form we use the infinitive with to.
Eg. The boss made me work late : I was made to work late.
The verb let has no passive form, so we use a passive form of
allow/permit+ infinitive with to:
Eg. The teacher let us leave early: We were allowed to leave early.

TYPICAL CONTEXTS FOR THE PASSIVE

Formal notices and announcements
Eg. Candidates are required to present themselves fifteen
minutes before the examination begins.
Press reports
Eg. Many people have been questioned about the problem.
Headlines, advertisements, notices, etc.
Eg. Kennedy assassinated!
Scientific writing (to describe process)
Eg. The mixture is placed in a bowl and is heated to a
temperature of 300C.

THE CAUSATIVE US OF HAVE/GET

The causative is similar to the passive. We focus on what is
done to something or someone, not on what someone does.
Structure: Have/get+ object+ past
participle

Uses:
To describe something which is done for the subject by
someone else (to stress the fact that we are causing
someone else to perform a service for us):
Eg. Im having/getting my car serviced.
When something is unpleasant or unexpected we use have:
Eg. Liza had her passport stolen.
Get is used when that action implies difficulty:
Eg. Get the door repaired, will you?

BIBLIOGRAPHY
English Grammar I, FFyL-UNCuyo 2012. Handout
9, The Passive Voice. PP 241-248
Evans V. and Dooley J. New Round-Up 6. PP 102104, 114.
Foley M. and Hall D. My Grammar Lab Advanced.
PP 272, 273, 276, 278.