2. The formation of the Passive Voice.

The Passive Voice is formed by means of the auxiliary verb to be in the required form and Past Participle (Participle II) of the notional verb.

The passive = to be + Participle II

The interrogative form is formed by placing the (first) auxiliary verb before the subject of the sentence.

Will the work be done tomorrow?

The negative form is formed by placing the particle “not” after the first auxiliary verb.

The work will not be done tomorrow.

Interrogative verbs in active questions about the object become affirmative verbs in passive questions:

What did they steal? – What was stolen?

Conversely, affirmative verbs in active questions become interrogative verbs in passive questions:

Who painted it? – Who was it painted by?

Other types of questions require interrogative verbs in both active and passive questions:

When / Where / Why did he paint it? – When / Where / Why was it painted?

Tense	Indefinite (Simple)	Continuous	Perfect
Present	am / is / are + written	am/ is/ are + being written	have / has + written
Past	was /were + written	was / were + being written	had been written
Future	will be written	_______	will have been written

!!! The Future Continuous and all Perfect-Continuous tenses are not used in the passive.

The rules for tense usage in the passive are the same as in the active.

3. The use of the Passive Voice.

The Passive Voice tends to be used in preference to the active voice in the following situations:

• when the doer of the action is unknown or indefinite

The minister was murdered.

• when the main interest of the speaker is on the action itself and not particularly on the doer of the action

The house next door has been bought.

• when the doer of the action is obvious and for that reason does not need to be named

The streets are swept every day.

• when the speaker wishes to make a statement less direct for reasons of tact, diplomacy, discretion, etc. as the passive makes it less clear who the actual doer is

All school outing have been cancelled.

• in official notices, instructions, prohibitions, to make them sound impersonal and thus more polite

Breakfast is served from 6.00 to 10.30.

Passive constructions are more widely used in English than in Ukrainian. A much greater number of verbs can be used in the Passive Voice in English. These cases are the following:

• Transitive verbs taking two objects, direct and indirect, form two kinds of passive constructions.

A very good job was offered to him.

He was offered a very good job.

Note: There is a certain group of transitive verbs which are not used in the Passive Voice (to seem, to become, to suit, etc.), as they don’t denote actions or processes, but states.

He seems to know all.

• Intransitive verbs taking a prepositional object can be used passively too. In this case the prepositional object of an active construction becomes the subject of a passive construction, the preposition being put after the passive verb.

The film was much talked about.

• Some other intransitive verbs such as live, sleep, etc. may be used in passive constructions the subject of which corresponds to the adverbial modifier of an active construction.

The bed had not been slept in.

• A number of phraseological verb + noun groups can also be used in the Passive Voice.

His remark was taken no notice of.

The agent, when mentioned, is preceded by the preposition by.

Two hundred people are employed by this company.