3. Passive constructions.

The Passive is often used with verbs of saying and believing in the following constructions:

• it + passive + ‘that’ clause

It is expected that many more people will die from starvation in the next decade.

• there + passive + to-infinitive

There are believed to be many thousands of homeless teenagers living on the streets of the capital.

• subject + passive + to-infinitive

She is considered to be the best singer in the group.

The verbs to be used in the constructions mentioned above are believe, expect, feel, hope, know, report, say, think, etc.

4. Agents and objects with the Passive.

In most passive sentences we have no interest in who or what performs an action. We are interested in the action itself, who or what is affected by the action, or what is the result of it. In fact only 20% of passive sentences mention the agent.

That window has been broken.

We mention the agent in the following situations:

1. when you introduce necessary new information about the agent

John Delgado is a famous sports writer. Recently he was hired by the International Sports to write a monthly column.

2. when you want to give credit to someone who created something

The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney.

3. when the agent is surprising

Our windows are washed by a robot.

5. Prepositions with the Passive.

The agent is usually introduced with ‘by’.

As with active forms of verbs, you can mention something that the agent uses to perform the action after the preposition ‘with’.

A circle was drawn in the dirt with a stick.

You can mention the method using an –ing form after ‘by’.

Much of their strong case can be removed by changing the cooking water.

A few transitive verbs refer to states rather than actions. When some of these verbs are used in the passive, the agent is out after the preposition ‘with’.

The room was filled with pleasant furniture.

The railings were decorated with thousands of bouquets.

Here is a list of transitive verbs referring to states which are used with ‘with’ in the passive:

cram	decorate	ornament
crowd	fill	throng

However, ‘by’ is used with some verbs which describe a state:

conceal	illuminate	occupy
exceed	inhabit	overshadow

The Melbourne meeting is likely to be overshadowed by the implications of the recent Ottawa economic summit.

Some verbs can be used with ‘with’ or ‘by’ after them:

adorn	cover	overrun
besiege	encircle	surround

Her right hand was covered with blood.

One entire wall was covered by a gigantic chart of the English Channel.

There are also verbs which are used with ‘in’:

contain	embody	involve
cover	include	subsume

The walls of her flat are covered in dirt.

Free transport was not included in the contract.

Phrasal verbs which consist of a transitive verb followed by an adverb or a preposition, or by an adverb and a preposition, can be used in the passive.

I was talked into meeting Norman Grass.

The most currently occurring verbs are:

• verbs of speaking: to speak about (of, to), to comment on, to talk about (of), to write about;

• the verb to look at (upon, to, after, for, into);

• verbs expressing mockery or blame: to laugh at, to shout at, to mock at, to sneer at, to spit at, to frown at;

• other verbs: to approve of, to disapprove of, to send for, to deal with, to think of, to rely on.

Verbs that have two objects (usually a person and a thing) in the active usually have two passive forms because either of the objects can become the new subject.

They gave the award to an unknown actress. (active)

The award was given to an unknown actress. (passive)

An unknown actress was given the award. (passive)

We usually add a preposition before the personal object. The preposition is usually ‘to’, but we sometimes use ‘for’.

A note was handed to the minister.

A slice of cake was cut for him.

However some verbs, e.g. allow, ask, cause, forgive, deny, refuse don’t normally take a preposition before the personal object.

Permission was refused him.

The prepositional passive is not used with the verbs which take two objects, direct and prepositional, such as to explain (smth to smb), to point out, to announce, to propose, to devote, to say.