Advanced passives review
Look at these examples to see how the passive voice is used.
The interview was recorded yesterday.
Cleaner sources of energy must be developed.
An electrical fault is believed to have caused the power cut.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Grammar explanation
We can use the passive voice to change the focus of the sentence.
Aliya Monier directed the film.
(focus on Aliya Monier)The film was directed by Aliya Monier.
(focus on The film)
We often use the passive:
- so that we can start a sentence with the most important or most logical information
- when we prefer not to mention who or what does the action (for example, it's not known, it's obvious or we don't want to say)
- in more formal or scientific writing.
Be + past participle
The most common way to form the passive is subject + be + past participle.
The new smoke alarm was installed yesterday.
The 'doer' of the action is called the agent. Most of the time, the agent is not mentioned, but if important, the agent can be mentioned using the preposition by.
The new smoke alarm was installed yesterday by the company director herself.
We can also use the passive voice with modal verbs such as can, must and should, by using modal + be + past participle.
A podcast can be made with minimal resources.
The accident must be reported to the police.
New laws should be created to regulate electric scooters.
The passive with get
In informal English, get is sometimes used instead of be to form the passive.
My bicycle got stolen last night.
(= My bicycle was stolen last night.)
The impersonal passive
The impersonal passive is used with reporting verbs such as allege, believe, claim, consider, estimate, expect, know, report, say, think, understand, etc. It reports what an unspecified group of people say or believe.
The impersonal passive has two forms:
it + be + past participle + (that) + subject + verb:
It is estimated that millions of people visit the site every year.
It is believed that the walls date from the third century BCE.
It is reported that mosquitoes transmit the disease.
someone/something + be + past participle + infinitive:
Millions of people are estimated to visit the site every year.
The walls are believed to date from the third century BCE.
Mosquitoes are reported to transmit the disease.
Note that the infinitive can be simple (as above), perfect (for a past action) or continuous (for an action in progress).
Millions are estimated to visit the site this year. (simple infinitive)
The walls are believed to have been built in the third century BCE. (perfect infinitive)
Mosquitoes are reported to be transmitting the disease. (continuous infinitive)
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello team,
Q: She will not come to your birthday party if you don't invite her.
Correct answer: Without being invited, she will not come to your birthday party.
I want to know if I can answer like this -
Without inviting her, she will not come to your birthday party.
Please kindly also explain the reason why or why not.
Best regards,
Bo Bo
Hello Bo Bo,
No, that sentence does not work. The reason is that the subjects do not agree. As written, the person doing (or not doing) the inviting is the same person as the subject of the main clause, which means that she would be inviting (or not) herself. You need to add a pronoun to make it clear that the inviting is done by someone else:
Without you inviting her, she will not come to your birthday party.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sir,
Q. Although Daw Kyi works very hard, her business is not thriving.
Answers
In spite of working very hard, Daw Kyi's business is not thriving.
Are all three answers correct? Is there any difference in meanings?
Thanks again,
Bo Bo
Hello Bo Bo,
Sentences 1 and 2 are fine and have the same meaning. I would say that sentence 2 is a little more rhetorically emphatic.
Sentence 3 is not correct. The reason is that 'working very hard' describes the subject of the second clause. This subject is 'Daw Kyi's business' and a business cannot work hard; only the owner can work hard. You would need to change the second part of the sentence to make 'Daw Kyi' the subject. For example:
In spite of working very hard, Daw Kyi did not have a thriving business.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello,
Could you please explain how to make impersonal passive forms with sentences in the past continuous tense? For example, 'The jury believed that the suspects were sleeping.' - Is it correct to say: 'The suspects were believed to have been sleeping,' or 'The suspects were believed to be sleeping.'?
Kind regards,
Hello maripr,
Both sentences are grammatically correct but there is a difference in meaning.
The suspects were believed to be sleeping - they believed that the suspects were sleeping at the time of the suspicion.
The suspects were believed to have been sleeping - they believed that the suspects were sleeping some time earlier; whether or not they were still sleeping later is not clear.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello teachers,
Could you please explain to me which is the correct passive transformation of this sentence?
Active sentence: People said that she moved to London.
Passive sentence: "She was said to have moved to London." or "She was said to move to London."
Do we use "to have moved" or "to move", teachers?
Thanks a lot in advance.
Best regards,
Hello Thu3009,
The correct form here is 'to have moved' as you are describing a single action in the past (before people said it), not a regular or habitual action.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
hi sir,
how about
"They thought that the internet was just for computer geeks." ?
can we say "the internet was thought to be ... or to have been?
Hi sameralbzoor,
Both are grammatically possible. If you say thought to have been then it refer to a previous time (before the thinking). For example:
He was thought to live in London. [he was in London when they were thinking this]
He was thought to have lived in London. [they thought that he had lived in London in the past; whether or not he still lived there when they were thinking this is not known]
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team