6o - Passive - Present and Past Simple

Use of Passive

•Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action.
Example: My bike was stolen.
–In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who did it.

•Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows:
Example: A mistake was made.
–In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have made a mistake.).

• If we want to say who does or what causes the action we use "by..."

Example: This house was built by my grandfather.

Form of Passive

•Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle
(3rd column of irregular verbs)
•Example: A letter was written.
•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 the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped

Examples of Passive

Tense Subject Verb Object

Simple Present Active: Rita writes a letter.

Passive: A letter is written by Rita.

Simple Past Active: Rita wrote a letter.

Passive: A letter was written by Rita.