The passive and the agent

A. In a passive sentence, we sometimes mention the agent (the person or thing doing the action) and use by with it.

The cheque must be signed by the manager. The medals were presented by Nelson Mandela

But we mention the agent only if it is important for the meaning of the sentence.

We do not mention the agent:

1. if it does not add any new information: All our money and passports were stolen. A man was arrested last night.(We do not need to say that the money was stolen 'by a thief or that the man was arrested 'by the police'.)

2. if it is not important: The streets are cleaned every day. Oil has been discovered at the North Pole. (Who discovered the oil is less important than the fact that it is there.)

3. It is sometimes difficult to say who the agent is: This kind of jacket is considered very fashionable these days. A number of attempts have been made to find the Lockness monster.

Active

Passive

They clean the streets every day. The new and important information is how often the streets are cleaned. We are not interesting in saying who cleans them. In the active sentence we can use ‘empty subject’ they. We sometimes use a sentence with an empty subject instead of the passive, especially in conversation. We can also use such empty subjects as people, you, one, someone. E.g. People use this footpath all the time. You / one should check the details. Someone took my purse.

The streets are cleaned every day. This footpath is used all the time. The details should be checked. My purse was taken. When do we use the passive? 1. in speech and writing, but mostly in writing: in textbooks, reports, to describe activities in industry, science and technology, and also for official rules. Bananas are exported to Europe. Cars left here will be towed away Payment can be made at any post office. The liquid is heated to boiling point. Examinees are kindly requested to gather in the Assembly. (In these situations, it is often not important to say who is doing the action, or it is difficult to say.) 2. in news reports. A number of political prisoners have been released. Talks will be held in London next week.

Special Passive Structures

A . Henry gave some flowers to Claire. Some flowers were given to Claire.

Dir. Object Indir. Object Claire was given some flowers.

It’s quite normal in English for a person to be the subject in a passive sentence.

Mike was sent tickets for the concert. (Майку послали билеты на концерт)

Mike sent tickets for the concert. (Майк послал билеты на концерт).

Here are some verbs that can be used in this structure:

Have something done

1. Claire decorated the room. (she did the work herself)

Claire had the room decorated (A decorator did the work)

We can use have in a passive structure. Claire had the room decorated means that she arranged for a decorator to do it for her as a professional service.

	have	something	done
You should	have	your car	serviced.
Mark usually	has	his suits	cleaned in New Zealand
We	had	the television	repaired only last year
You’ve	had	your hair	cut
Our neighbours are	having	a new garage	built
Is Melanie	having	a new cooker	installed?

In negatives and questions in simple tenses, we use a form of do.

Mark doesn’t have his suits cleaned at Fastclean.

We didn’t have new windows put in because it was too expensive.

Do you have your car serviced regularly?