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:
Subject | be | Past participle | Adverbial |
---|---|---|---|
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
Hello Poonam80,
I think the word order needs to be changed:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello chandana jayamaha,
Both options are possible grammatically, but both are inherently ambiguous without any further context. The second sentence is probably better as the first implies that there is a 'he' who is not John and is the owner of the dog.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello 12nguyenhien
Your summary of agents in the passive is good. Perhaps there are some specific situations where it would not be correct, but in general, 'by them' works as an agent in a passive construction.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Hosseinpour
That is grammatically correct, though the end of the sentence isn't completely clear to me. I don't understand what 'recognition in matters and administration' means.
Hope this helps.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ahmed Imam
In the first, you say that you arranged for the technician to come and she checked the TV. In the second one, you're speaking about a specific time in the past, and at the time, the technician was checking your TV.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ramesh
Maybe 'Why do I refuse to interview her?' I'd recommend you ask your teacher.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Quynh Nhu,
In my opinion option D is the best and correct answer. Option B does not strike me as a natural formulation. If have to (obligation) is required then we would not use suppose here:
or
Alternatively, you could use a present form as the situation is still current:
Generally, we comment on the material on our own pages and not on material from other publications. If you need an explanation of any particular question then the book's publisher is the place to go, as they are responsible for their publications.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Pratapsingh
The best person to ask this is your teacher! B is not correct in standard British English. The other options are, but the closest in meaning is probably D.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello mourin,
These are all imperative sentences and generally we use 'let... be...' to make passive forms of these sentences. I'll show you how to change one of the sentences, and if you want to change the others yourself we'll be happy to tell you if you did it correctly.
Do away with it >>> Let it be done away with.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello mourin
1 is grammatically correct, but 2 is quite strange because we don't normally use 'by' with a third-person imperative. I don't really understand what 2 means.
In any case, please note that these forms are quite unusual in everyday English nowadays.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello mousab7
Yes, that is correct, though if I were writing this, I would choose the second option over the first one.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello parisaach
The passive is essentially formed of two parts: 1) the verb 'be' (used as an auxiliary verb) and 2) the past participle of the verb. It's only 1 that changes for tense or subject, so that means you could just list out all the forms of 'be' in the different tenses and then add 2 to the end to get a list.
For example, following the order of the tenses on the present tense page: it is written, it is being written, it has been written, it has been being written. The past tense page: it was written, it was being written, it had been written, it had been being written. Then there are also forms with 'will' and 'would': it will be written, it will be being written, it will have been written, it will have been being written, it would be written, it would be being written, it would have been written and it would have been being written.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Cleo
In the passive sentence, you can include the agent ('the cleaner') by using the word 'by': 'The office has been cleaned by the cleaner'. There is nothing wrong with this, but often we use the passive voice because we consider the agent (in this case, the cleaner) irrelevant or something that we don't want to discuss. So in many cases, people would probably leave out the agent.
But the passive can be used for other reasons, too, and in these cases people might choose to include the agent.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nidhi
Perhaps 'Will the banks not be worked in regularly?'?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello miladghasemiofficial
Those are all correct, except for being misspelled (won't, don't). 'they don't help you' is in the present simple, so the closest version in the passive would also be in the present simple -- the second and third versions you give are in the present simple.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team