Name: Mejia Monter Efren Abraham

Group: 5IV14
Date: September 14 2014

SELF STUDY GUIDE


Passive form of verbs

Sentences can be active or passive. Therefore, tenses also have "active forms" and "passive
forms." You must learn to recognize the difference to successfully speak English.
Active Form
In active sentences, the thing doing the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing
receiving the action is the object. Most sentences are active.

[Thing doing action] + [verb] + [thing receiving action]

In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing
doing the action is optionally included near the end of the sentence. You can use the passive form
if you think that the thing receiving the action is more important or should be emphasized. You
can also use the passive form if you do not know who is doing the action or if you do not want to
mention who is doing the action.
[Thing receiving action] + [be] + [past participle of verb] + [by] + [thing doing action]


When to use the passive form of the verbs
In some sentences, passive voice can be perfectly acceptable. You might use it in the following
cases:
1.
The actor is unknown: The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age.
[We don't know who made them.]
2.
The actor is irrelevant: An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert.
[We are not interested in who is building it.]
3.
You want to be vague about who is responsible: Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic
writing!]
4.
You are talking about a general truth: Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.]
5.
You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your main topic:
Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is still the only
treatment available for diabetes.
6.
You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice. Passive voice is
often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in the Materials and
Methods section: The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated
with hydrochloric acid.






How to identify when the passive form is being used
The passive voice is a specific grammatical construction; not every expression that serves to take
focus away from the performer of an action is classified as an instance of passive voice. The
essential components of the English passive voice are a form of the auxiliary verb be (or
sometimes get), and the past participle of the main verb denoting the action.
Subject Passive form adjetive
That all men are created equal
We have been cruelly deceived
The captain was struck by a missile
The house will be cleaned by me every Saturday
The students questions are always answered by the teacher




E X E R C I C E S
I bough a new book
A new book was bought by my

John is calling his mother
His mother is being called
His mother is being called

My dad told me something good
Something good was told by my dad

He cook my dinner
My dinner is cooked by him

.Johnny Ball is training our local football team.
Our local football team is being trained by Johnny Ball

.Anyone can do this activity very easily.
This activity can be done very easily

.They haven't released the exam results yet.
The exam results havent been released yet

My aunt water the trees all Mondays
All mondays the trees are wantered by my aunt
My baugter will see me here
I will be seen by my father

The doctors have saved my mothers life
My motherslife has been saved by the doctors



.Someone has told me that you still go out with Billy.
I have been told that you still go out with Billy


.They probably recycle some of the solid wastes regularly.
Some of the solid wastes are probably recycled regularly

.The hurricane Gustav severely damaged the houses on the shore.
The houses on the shore were severely damaged by the hurricane Gustav

Someone has stolen my watch.
My watch has been stolen

.The horror film affected my little brother badly.
My little brother was affected badly by the horror film

.The milkman will deliver two bottles of milk to your door.
Two bottles of milk will be delivered to your door

They are going to deliver our new washing machine tomorrow.
Our new washing machine is going to be delivered tomorrow