# The Passive Voice *Present Simple, Present Continuous *Past Simple and Past Continuous* The passive is used to describe actions - When we dont know the doer of the action: Ex.: My briefcase was stolen last night. - When it is not important to know the doer of the action: Ex.: The cars are taken to Europe every week. These televisions were made in Japan. * The Rule: - The steps that you have to follow to change Active sentences to Passive ones are: 1. Dividing the sentence in its main parts {subject – verb – object} 2. Starting your Passive sentence with the object of the Active sentence. 3. Noticing the tense of the verb. * If the verb is in the present simple {Verb to be (am, is, are) + past participle} Ex: We clean the garages everyday. (Active) - The garages are cleaned (by us) everyday. (Passive) * If the verb is in the past simple {Verb to be (was, were) + past participle} Ex: The police arrested the thieves yesterday. - The thieves were arrested by the police yesterday. (Passive) * If the verb is in the present continuous {Verb to be (am, is, are)+ being+ Past participle} Ex: Dad is painting the wall. - The wall (is being painted) (by dad) *If the verb is in the past continuous {Verb to be (was, were) + being+ past participle} Ex: The children were playing football. - Football was being played by the children. **Note: The verb in the active sentence is changed according to the object. If the object is singular then the auxiliary verb to be is singular and vice verse * She is playing the piano. -The piano is being played/ V.to be Singular = is *The surveillance camera caught three men wearing black during the robbery. - Three men wearing black were caught by the surveillance camera during the robbery/ V.to be Plural = were
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 11:46:34 +0000
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