Level: beginner
Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms:
| active | passive | |
|---|---|---|
| The hunter killed the lion. | > | The lion was killed by the hunter. |
| Someone has cleaned the windows. | > | The windows have been cleaned. |
Passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle:
| be | past participle | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| English | is | spoken | all over the world. |
| The windows | have been | cleaned. | |
| Lunch | was being | served. | |
| The work | will be | finished | soon. |
| They | might have been | invited | to the party. |
If we want to show the person or thing doing the action, we use by:
She was attacked by a dangerous dog.
The money was stolen by her husband.
- Active and passive voice 1
- Active and passive voice 2
- Active and passive voice 3
Level: intermediate
The passive infinitive is made up of to be with a past participle:
The doors are going to be locked at ten o'clock.
You shouldn't have done that. You ought to be punished.
We sometimes use the verb get with a past participle to form the passive:
Be careful with that glass. It might get broken.
Peter got hurt in a crash.
We can use the indirect object as the subject of a passive verb:
| active | passive | |
|---|---|---|
| I gave him a book for his birthday. | > | He was given a book for his birthday. |
| Someone sent her a cheque for a thousand euros. | > |
She was sent a cheque for a thousand euros. |
We can use phrasal verbs in the passive:
| active | passive | |
|---|---|---|
| They called off the meeting. | > | The meeting was called off. |
| His grandmother looked after him. | > | He was looked after by his grandmother. |
| They will send him away to school. | > | He will be sent away to school. |
- Active and passive voice 4
- Active and passive voice 5
Level: advanced
Some verbs which are very frequently used in the passive are followed by the to-infinitive:
| be supposed to | be expected to | be asked to | be told to |
| be scheduled to | be allowed to | be invited to | be ordered to |
John has been asked to make a speech at the meeting.
You are supposed to wear a uniform.
The meeting is scheduled to start at seven.
- Active and passive voice 6
- Active and passive voice 7
Comments
Hello,
On the website"Peter got hurt in a crash" is given as example of passive voice. What will be its active form? Hasn't "hurt"been used as Participle adjective here.
Thanks
Hello Bharati,
The disinction between passive voice and participle adjectives is often a hard one to make.
Some grammars finesse the issue by proposing various kinds of not-quite-true passive form. You can see an example of this here:
https://www.englishforums.com/English/AdjectiveOrPartOfAPassive/znxqp/post.htm#sc485871
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sir.
I have a doubt, regarding the use of 'get' verb
Sometimes it acts linking verb and sometimes it acts causative verb.
For these examples
1) The father got his daughter married.
2) The father got his daughter marry.
Which one is correct between these two sentences ?
If we assume get as a causative verb it takes Bare infinitive according to that marry verb is right here.
But I have discussed many teachers for that question they say that 'get' verb always follows a past participle.
Please clarify this sir.
Hello Kapil Kabir,
The correct form here is the past participle. Get is never used with the bare infinitive in this way and get someone marry is not a correct formulation.
Causative verbs are followed by the past participle: get something done, have something done etc.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Sir,
If we write
The father got his son to marry.
Is it correct ?
Dear Sir,
If you kindly write down in a sentence that why we use passive?
Hello
I want to know what is difference between active and passive voice
Hello Mohammad Ghm,
We can think of a sentence in which we have three elements:
For example:
Here, our elements are
This is active voice.
We can change the sentence so that we start with the boy - the person or thing acted upon:
Now we have passive voice. The object of the original sentence (the dog) is used as the subject of the verb, using [be + past participle (was bitten)]. We can include the person or thing doing the action or we can omit it if we prefer.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you for your examples.
Now I know the difference
Mohammad Ghm
I want to know whether the following is acceptable in voice
For grandfather John painted a fence.
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