ГРАММАТИКА ЭКЗАМЕН / 3 THE PASSIVE VOICE

THE PASSIVE VOICE

The Passive Voice is formed with the help of the auxiliary to be in the appropriate tense-form and the Past Participle of the main verb.

Tense	Formation	Example
Present Indefinite	am/is/are + Past Participle	Cars are repaired.
Past Indefinite	was/were + Past Participle	The car was repaired.
Future Indefinite	will be + Past Participle	The car will be repaired.
Present Continuous	am/is/are being + Past Participle	The car is being repaired.
Past Continuous	was/were being + Past Participle	The car was being repaired.
Present Perfect	have/has been + Past Participle	The car has been repaired.
Past Perfect	had been + Past Participle	The car had been repaired.
Future Perfect	will have been + Past Participle	The car will have been repaired.

NOTE 1. Present Perfect Continuous, Future Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous are not normally used in the passive.

NOTE 2. Get is used in colloquial English instead of to be to express something happening by accident: He got hurt last Monday. (more usual than He was hurt last Monday).

The Rules of Changing from Active into Passive

1. The object of the active verb becomes the subject in the new sentence.

2. The active verb changes into a passive form and the subject of the active verb becomes the agent.

3. The agent is introduced with by or it is omitted.

Only transitive verbs can be changed into the passive.

The Passive Voice is used:

1. when the agent (the person who does the action) is unknown, unimportant or obvious from the context: The door had been locked. (we don’t know who locked it – unknown agent) Repairs are being made on the runway. (by the builders – obvious agent)

2. when we are interested more in the action than the agent, such as in news reports, formal notices, instructions, processes, headlines, advertisements etc.: The whole area was evacuated. (news report) Breakfast is served from 6.00 to 10.30. (formal notice)

3. to make statements more formal or polite: My new dress has been ruined. (more polite than saying “You ruined my dress.”)

4. to put emphasis on the agent: The Pyramids were built by the ancient Egyptians.

Prepositions with Passive Verbs

1. They use by + agent to say who or what carries out the action.

2. They use with + instrument/material/ingredient to say what the agent used. The pancakes were made by Claire. They were made with eggs, flour and milk.

The agent is often omitted in the passive sentence when the subject of the active sentence is one of the following words: people, one, someone/somebody, they, he, etc.

Active: Somebody has rearranged the furniture.

Passive: The furniture has been rearranged.

But: The agent is not omitted when it is a specific or important person, or when it is essential to the meaning of the sentence: The “Mona Lisa” was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. A new law has been passed by the government.

Special Passive Constructions. Verbs with two Passive Constructions

Some English verbs in the Active Voice can take two objects, a direct (usually a thing) and indirect one (usually a person).

With verbs which take two objects such as bring, tell, send, show, teach, promise, buy, throw, write, award, hand, sell, owe, grant, allow, feed, pass, post, read, take, offer, give, pay and lend, they can make two different passive sentences. However, it is more usual for passive sentences to begin with the person.

Active Ann showed Rod some photos

Passive a) Rod was shown some photos by Ann. (more usual)

b) Some photos were shown to Rod by Ann. (less usual)

Passive Voice/Causative Form (HAVE SOMETHINGDONE)

We use have + object + past participle to talk about something which we arrange for someone else to do for us: I’m having a garage built at the moment.

Compare:

I’m building a garage at the moment. (I’m building the garage myself)

I’m having a garage built at the moment. (I arranged for someone else to do this for me)

We can use have + object + past participle to express accidents or misfortunes. She had her car stolen. (= Her car was stolen.) He had his leg broken. (= His leg was broken.)

Get can be used instead of have in the causative: I had/got my tooth taken out yesterday. (Get is stronger in meaning than have and can be used to suggest difficulty). Get the door repaired, will you? He finally got the seats booked.