How to make passive voice in English. Active and Passive Voice in English

There are times when it is not the subject that is important, but the action itself. In such situations they will help out (passive voice). Listen to the news, read newspapers, and you will see that the passive voice is used quite often, both at home and in the offices of serious companies. And this applies to any language.

English sentences in passive voice

What do you need to know to formulate? It's simple, you just need to remember a simple diagram:

If you need to indicate the person who performed this or that action, the preposition is used by.

For example:

This castle was built by my parents. – This castle was built by my parents.

To form an interrogative sentence, it is enough to take out the appropriate form of the verb to be in front of the object/subject on which the action was performed.

For example:

Was this castle built by your parents? – Was this castle built by your parents?

To formulate a negation, it is enough to add not to our verb to be.

For example:

This castle wasn't built by my parents. – This castle was not built by my parents.

English sentences in passive voice

Let's move on to practice! Below are English sentences in passive voice.

time	offer	translation
	This exercise is done by Mike.	This exercise is done by Mike
	This exercise was done by Mike yesterday.	This exercise was done by Mike yesterday.
	This exercise will be done by Mike.	This exercise will be completed by Mike.
	This exercise has already been done by Mike.	This exercise has already been completed by Mike.
	This exercise had been done by Mike before I asked him.	This exercise was done by Mike before I asked him to.

Used in the active form of voice - “the Active Voice” and in the passive form ( passive) - "the Passive Voice". In the active voice, the subject performs the action indicated by the verb, and in the passive voice, the verb itself acts on the subject. She wrote a book (Active) - A book was written by her (Passive). So easy! But let's clarify some details just in case. C"mon.

What is passive voice?

Passive voice widely used in both spoken and written modern English. Often, passive constructions are used when there is no need to name the performer of an action, and also if there is no difference in who exactly performs this action - only the result is important.

The passive voice is used to show interest in the object that experiences the action, rather than in the object that performs it.

The book was written last Monday. - The book was written last Monday.

In this sentence, the subject “the book” experiences the action of the subject, that is, the book itself did not write itself, but was written by someone. In this case, most likely, it is known who wrote it, but what is important here is the fact of the action (the book has been written, and it is ready), and not the performer. That is why the sentence is used in the passive voice.

When it is necessary to indicate the performer of an action in the passive voice, we add the preposition “ by» :

The book was written by me. - This book was written by me.

Formation of the passive voice in different tenses

The passive voice is formed using the auxiliary verb " be» and shapes Past Participle(of a semantic verb in the 3rd form) and only transitive verbs (denote an action that, in its meaning, transfers to a certain object) can form forms of passive voice.

Formation of the passive voice

Time	Formula	Example
Present Simple	is/am/are + Ved (V3)	Mails are sent every day. - Parcels are sent every day.
Past Simple	was/were + Ved (V3)	Mails were sent yesterday. - The parcels were sent yesterday.
Future Simple	will/shall + be + Ved(V3)	Mails will be sent tomorrow. - The parcels will be sent tomorrow.
Present Continuous	is/am/are + being + Ved (V3)	Mails are being sent now. - Parcels are being sent now.
Past Continuous	was/were + being + Ved (V3)	Mails were being sent at 5 yesterday. - Parcels were sent at 5 o'clock yesterday.
Future Continuous	—	—
Present Perfect	has/have + been + Ved (V3)	Letters have already been sent. - The letters have already been sent.
Past Perfect	had + been + Ved (V3)	Letters had been sent before he phoned. - The letters were sent before he called.
Future Perfect	will/shall + have/has+ been +Ved (V3)	Letters will have been sent by 5 tomorrow. - Letters will be sent tomorrow before 5 o'clock.
Perfect Continuous	—	—

Attention: The Perfect Continuous is not used at all in the passive voice. And Continuous time has no future segment.

In addition, you can also form passive sentences with two objects. So an active sentence in passive voice might look like this:

Active Voice:

Linda gave an apple to me.

Passive Voice:

An apple was given to me by Linda or
I was given an apple by Linda.

One of the two objects becomes the subject, while the other remains the object. Which object becomes the subject depends on what you focus on.

Negative and interrogative forms of verbs in the passive voice

Negative the verb form is formed using the particle " not”, which follows the auxiliary verb (if there are several auxiliary verbs, then “not” is placed after the first one):

The cat was not fed by him yesterday. - The cat was not fed it yesterday.
The cat was not often left hungry. - The cat was not often left hungry.

Nothing complicated and interrogative form. To form such in the passive voice first auxiliary verb is put before the subject:

Are are you often invited to the circus? -Are you often invited to the circus?
Has the book was written by her? - Was the book written by her?

To be born

This passive form is often used in the past tense, but in some cases the present or future tense is also appropriate.

We say "I was born" (was born) - I was born(not I am born). Action refers to the past:

I was born in Chicago. - I was born in Chicago.
Where were you born? - Where you were born?

But if we talk not about ourselves, but about the birth of children in a general sense, then the Present can be used depending on the situation:

How many kids are born every day? - How many children are born every day?
Around 100 babies are born in this hospital every week. - About 100 babies are born in this hospital every week.

We don't know on exactly which day the baby will be born.

Modal verbs

First you need to remember the most commonly used modal verbs:

• can- be able to, be able to. I can do that. - I can do it;
• should- verb-adviser. When you need to advise or recommend something. You should be careful. - You should be careful;
• must- a verb expressing the speaker’s obligation or prohibition. Shows awareness of the speaker's obligation to do something or is used to indicate a prohibition, for example: You musn"t smoke here. - You can't smoke here. I must admit. - I have to admit;
• have to- a verb expressing present or future obligations that cannot be broken. You have to do that. - You must do this;
• ought to- a synonym for the verb “should”, a more polite version of it. You ought to stop smoking. - You should quit smoking;
• be supposed to- a modal verb based on rules or expectations. That is, it is used when you need to say something that someone needs to do according to certain rules or when something is expected. You were supposed to save him, Batman! - You should have saved him, Batman (because Batman saves people or puts them in prison).

To compose a correct sentence with a modal verb in the passive voice, we need to put the verb “be” in combination with the modal. It will look like this:

• must be(it should be);
• have to be(it should be);
• ought to be(should be);
• can be(May be);
• should be(should be);
• be supposed to be(to be considered that; to be assumed that).

In practice, "modal verbs" are used quite often. And since they can also have a passive form, there is a special case of use with them.

There is no difficulty here: after the modal verb we add “be” and put the main verb following it in the Participle II form. So, it's like: (to) be + past participle(3rd form of the verb).

The next step is to put the main verb in the third form:

The writer should write a book. - A writer should write a book.
The book should be written by the writer. - The book should be written by a writer.

He has to do this test. - He must complete this test.
This test has to be done by him. - This test must be performed by him.

They were supposed to leave the bed an hour ago. - They were supposed to vacate the bed an hour ago.
The bed was supposed to be left by them an hour ago. - It was assumed that the bed would have been vacated by them an hour ago.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is nothing complicated in this English section. You just need to determine the role of the subject: it acts or is acted upon. Then indicate the tense, the auxiliary verb, the ending of the predicate - and voila! In the bag. If so, the Passive Voice education table will help you.

Big and friendly EnglishDom family

Passive Voice- a grammatical construction, which is a series of forms used when it is necessary to bring an action, and not its performer, to the forefront of the statement. The subject in such statements is passive, that is, it does not denote the performer of the action, but the object to which this action is directed. This construction is contrasted with the active voice (Active Voice), where the subject is the direct performer of the action, while in the passive voice the performer fades into the background or is completely absent. Let us compare, for example, sentences with similar contents in the active and passive voice:

In the case of active voice, the sentence shows what did the performer do(“parents built”), while the sentence in the passive voice reflects, what action was performed on the subject, which itself did not perform any actions (“the house was built”). Sentences in the passive voice are used much less frequently in Russian than in English, where they are especially common in business and journalistic writing.

Formation of verbal forms of the passive voice

Passive Voice- this is not one form of the verb, but a whole paradigm of verb forms, the common formation of which is the following formula:

This is the structure of the original form, that is Infinitive Passive . The passive voice contains the same tenses as the active voice, but only the verb to be takes on the corresponding tense form, while the semantic verb in the third form (V 3) appears after it in the sentence. The third form of the verb (V 3) is formed as follows:

• if the verb is regular, then a suffix is ​​added to it – ed, for example: to paint - paint ed
• if the verb belongs to a large group of irregular verbs, then its form must be looked at table of irregular verbs , but it’s better to remember: to make – made; to break – broken etc.

However, it should be noted that not all 12 tenses are represented in the passive voice, but only the most common tense forms of the English language.

	Simple	Continuous	Perfect	Perfect Continuous
Present	The airport is built .	The airport is being built .	The airport has been built .	—
Past	The airport was built .	The airport was being built .	The airport had been built .	—
Future	The airport will be built .	—	The airport will have been built .	—

As you can see from the table below, Passive Voice is not used in the Perfect Continuous tense group and in the Future Continuous form.

Let's look at examples of sentences in the passive voice, presented in different tenses:

Passive	Many accidents are caused by dangerous driving. – Many accidents are caused by dangerous driving.
Passive	How much money was stolen in the robbery? – How much money was stolen during the robbery?
Passive	The new supermarket will be opened next week. – The new supermarket will be opened next week.
Present Perfect Passive	I haven't been invited to the party. – I was not invited to the party.
Past Perfect Passive	The room looked nice because it had been cleaned before our arrival. – The room looked neat because it had been cleaned before our arrival.
Future Perfect Passive	The work will have been finished by your return. “The work will be finished by the time you return.”
Passive	My hotel room is being cleaned right now. “My hotel room is being cleaned right now.”
Passive	A group of people was walking behind me. I was being followed . “A group of people were following me. I was being followed.

The remaining tense forms are atypical for the passive voice.

To form a negative sentence, the particle not must be added to the first auxiliary verb:

Likewise, in education interrogative sentence or short answer the key role is given to first in a series of auxiliary verbs, and it is he who takes place before the subject in the question and is used in the short answer:

Infinitive and Gerund in Passive Voice

The infinitive, that is, the initial form of the Passive Voice, which was already mentioned above, has the structure (to) be V 3. This form is widely used in English in constructions with modal verbs, for example:

Gerund – a form formed by adding a suffix – ing and having the properties of a verb and a noun, is also quite common in the passive voice. Here it is characterized by the structure beingV 3, For example:

Since there are no forms similar to the gerund in the Russian language, quite often such constructions are translated using subordinate clauses.

Performer of action in passive voice

If in a sentence containing Passive Voice it is necessary to indicate the performer of the action, then a construction with the preposition is used by, which is translated into Russian using the instrumental case:

The tool or instrument with which the action was performed is most often indicated in the construction with the preposition with:

Peculiarities of translating sentences containing a predicate in the passive voice

It is no coincidence that the passive voice is found much more often in English speech than in Russian. This is due to the greater prevalence of indefinite personal sentences in the Russian language, with the help of which the same primary significance of the action is often conveyed, which is expressed in the English sentence by the passive voice. It follows that it is often more convenient to translate passive constructions using more typical types of sentences and grammatical constructions for the Russian language, namely:

The form of the verb in the 3rd person plural in the active voice, included in vague personal proposal	My money was stolen from my hotel room. - My money stolen from my hotel room.
Verb combination be in the required form with short form of the passive participle . Moreover, in the present tense the verb be falls.	All the flights were canceled because of the fog. – All flights were canceled because of the fog. Service is included in the bill. - Service included counted.
A reflexive verb, that is, a verb ending in -xia, -s.	This way isn't 't used very often. – This method is not often used.
A form of a verb that is similar in meaning and more common in Russian speech (but is not an exact translation of the verb given in the English sentence) in the active voice.	Nobody was injured in the accident. - None Suffered during an accident. to injure – to injure

What is collateral? Voice is a grammatical category that only verbs have. Collateral can be active (Active Voice) and passive (Passive Voice). Active voice shows that the subject itself performs the action:

Peter washes his car on Sundays. –Peter washes car By Sundays.

The passive voice shows that an action is being performed on an object.

Vegetables are sold in supermarkets. –Vegetables for sale V supermarkets .

Let's look at a few examples.

Present Simple:

They clean the rooms every day. – They clean the rooms every day. (Active)

The rooms are cleaned every day. – The rooms are cleaned every day. (Passive)

What actions did we take?

• They took it out addition forward
• Added verb to be, putting it in the right time (Present Simple) and the right number (plural)

Where did the first subject go? they? We removed it, since the emphasis in the second sentence is not on who exactly cleans the rooms, but on the very fact that they are cleaned, and by whom is not so important.

Let's form a negative and a question:

The rooms are not (aren’t) cleaned every day.

Are the rooms cleaned every day?

As we can see, in negation we simply add not, and in the question we put the verb to be at the beginning.

Short answers:

+ Yes, they are.

— No, they aren't.

Past Simple:

Here we did the same steps:

• Bringing the addition forward
• Added verb to be, putting it at the right time (Past Simple) and the right number (singular) - was
• Put the predicate in the third form

However, in this case it is important to us who performed the action, so we added a preposition by – By whom?

Negation and question:

“Hamlet” was not (wasn’t written) by Dickens.

Short answers:

+ Yes, it was.

— No, it wasn't’ t.

Here we can ask one more question: Who wrote Hamlet? This is done like this:

Who was “ Hamlet” written by ?

It turns out a frame from a question word Who and prepositions by.

If we need to mention a tool or instrument of action, we use the preposition with:

He was killed with a knife. – He was killed knife .

The general scheme for constructing the passive voice is as follows:

to be + V 3 /V ed

In other words, the verb to be in the right time and number + past participle (for irregular verbs - the third form, for regular ones - a verb with the ending - ed).

Present Simple	The rooms	are	cleaned	every day.
Present Continuous	The rooms	are being	cleaned	at the moment.
Present Perfect	The rooms	have been	cleaned	(recently).
Present Perfect Continuous	-	-	-	-
Past Simple	The rooms	were	cleaned	yesterday.
Past Continuous	The rooms	were being	cleaned	when I came.
Past Perfect	The rooms	had been	cleaned	before I came.
Past Perfect Continuous	-	-	-	-
Future Simple	The rooms	will be	cleaned	tomorrow.
Future Continuous	-	-	-	-
Future Perfect	The rooms	will have been	cleaned	by 6 o'clock.
Future Perfect Continuous	-	-	-	-

As we can see from the table, only one element changes - this is the actual verb to be. We can also add a time indication depending on when the action occurs.

Please note that in some tenses the passive voice is not used. What to do? A different time must be used.

• Instead of Present Perfect Continuous - just Present Perfect:

She has been writing these letters since 2 p.m. – These letters have been written since 2 p.m.

• Instead of Past Perfect Continuous - just Past Perfect:

Kate had been writing the book for 2 months by last Sunday. – The book had been written for 2 months by last Sunday.

• Instead of Future Continuous - Future Simple:

Tomorrow at 5 o'clock Ann will be writing a letter. – A letter will be written tomorrow at 5 o'clock.

• Instead of Future Perfect Continuous - just Future Perfect:

She will have been writing the book for 3 weeks by tomorrow. – The book will have been written for 3 weeks by tomorrow.

Some verbs that have two objects can form the passive voice in two ways:

Somebody gave the police the information. “Someone gave the police information.”

Option 1:

The information was given to the police.

Option 2:

The police were given the information.

This can be used with verbs such as:

Ask- ask, ask

Show– show

Offer- suggest

Pay- to pay

Teach- teach, teach

Tell- say

For modal verbs, the form be is used, but the modal verb itself does not change:

You must send this letter to the university. - You must send This is a letter to the university.

This letter must be sent to the university. - This letter must be sent to university.

So why do we need passive voice?

• When we don’t care or don’t know who is doing the action:

The bridges were built last year. – Bridges were built last year.

A famous painting was stolen from the museum yesterday. –Famous painting was yesterday stolen from museum.

• When it is obvious who is performing the action:

Alan was arrested . – Alan was arrested(of course, by the police).

• When we want to emphasize who exactly is performing the action:

America was discovered by Columbus(not Magellan). – America was open Columbus(not Magellan).

If the subject denotes a person or thing being acted upon by another person or thing, then the verb is used in the form passive voice.

Time passive voice (PassiveVoice) are formed using an auxiliary verb tobe(in the appropriate tense form) and past participle (Past Participle): islocked/isbeinglocked etc.

The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding the ending to the infinitive - ed: to invite - invite ed. When added to a verb - ed sometimes there are changes in its spelling: to stop - stopp ed. Past Participle of irregular verbs must be remembered: totell- told- told.

Table of all tenses in the passive voice

	Present The present	Past Past	Future Future	Future in the Past The future is in the past
Simple (indefinite) Uncertain	The ball is taken every day.	The ball was taken yesterday.	The ball will be taken tomorrow.	The ball would be taken the next day.
Continuous (Progressive) Long-term	The ball is being taken now.	The ball was being taken at 7 o’clock yesterday.	not used	not used
Perfect Perfect	The ball has already been taken.	The ball had been taken by 7 o'clock yesterday.	The ball will have been taken by 7 o'clock tomorrow.	The ball would have been taken by 7 o'clock the next week.
Perfect Continuous Perfect continuous	not used	not used	not used	not used

When forming the interrogative form of the passive voice, the auxiliary verb is placed before the subject: Is the ball taken? Would the ball betaken?

When forming a negative form of the passive voice, a particle not placed after the auxiliary verb: The ball isnottaken. The ball wouldnotbetaken.

Compare the sentences in the active and passive voices and notice that the object of the predicate verb in the active voice (the room) becomes the subject in the passive voice.

Active Voice:

Someone cleans the room every day. Someone cleans the room every day.

Passive Voice:

The room is cleaned every day. The room is cleaned every day.

The use of the passive voice (thepassivevoice):

1. The passive voice is used when the speaker's focus is on the person/object being acted upon.

He has been stolen my key. - He stole my keys.

2. The passive voice is used if the person/thing who performed the action is unknown.

The shirts have just beenironed. - The shirts had just been ironed (it is unknown who exactly ironed the shirts).

3. The passive voice is used if the character/object is not of interest.

She has been invited to the restaurant. - She was invited to a restaurant. (we are not interested in who exactly invited her to the restaurant, but she herself is interested)

4. Tenses in the passive voice are used according to the same rules as the corresponding tenses in the active voice. For example, when talking about an action that is currently in development, the Present Continuous form is used.

The room is being cleaned at that moment. - The room is being washed at this moment.

5. If the passive phrase indicates face by, and if indicated tool/instrument/means/substance, performing an action, then the preposition is used with.

I was hit by my sister. — My sister hit me.(face)

I was hit with a ball. — I was hit with a ball.(gun)

6. In the passive voice not used:

• intransitive verbs (verbs that cannot have a direct object);
• connective verbs ( be- to be, become- becomes, look- look, feel- feel etc.);
• modal verbs ( can/could, may/might, will/would, shall/should, must, ought to);
• some transitive verbs ( tofit- fit, be on time, tohave- have, tolike- to love, tosuit- suitable, suitable etc.).

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