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 again sarahmh,
I can see why you find that confusing and I agree that it could probably be represented in a clearer way, though it sounds to me as if the chart is representing the verb forms and not the meaning of the sentences.
It sounds to me as if you understand this grammar well, but if you have any other questions please feel free to ask us.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello ra,
Those are almost correct. There are slightly different possible answers, but what I'd write is:
1. Earthquake-resistant buildings in San Francisco were designed by architects.
2. An international driving license must be shown when a car is hired overseas.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello ra,
1. Production engineering skills are needed to develop ...
2. At a factory, the coffee beans are roasted by the workers in ...
3. The engineers are taught another way of coping ...
But I wouldn't recomming you use the passive versions of sentences 2 or 3.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Raja Muhammad Bashir,
'needed to be developed' is a grammatically correct phrase, but it would change the meaning to simply change that part of the sentence, and the remaining part of the sentence would also need some changing to adjust to that.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Abdul Azeez Ibrahim,
The original sentence is in the present (avoid) and there is no reason to change this when forming the passive construction. Thus, the second option (avoids) is better.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Saeed Alnaqbi,
People are made to buy things without thinking by the science behind consumerism.
Things that they don't actually need are bought by people.
I would not recommend you use either of those sentences in the passive voice, however.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
Yes, those are stative verbs.
The most common types of stative verbs are as follows:
Your sentences contain examples of verbs of perception/sensation.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Tea
Hello Rsb,
Sentence 1 is simply an active verb in the present continuous, with 'train' as the subject. Since 'come' is an intransitive verb, there is no way to use it in the passive.
The verb 'looks' in sentence 2 is a link verb and therefore also has no passive form.
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the term 'quasi-passive'.
By the way, both of the sentences are not correct in standard British English -- an article such as 'a' or 'the' is needed before 'train': 'A train is coming' or 'The train looks nice'.
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
It's entirely normal for an inanimate object to perform an action. It does not imply a decision or consciousness.
Sometimes in English we describe inanimate objects as having their own will and power to decide on something. This is called anthropomorphism. For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
Those sentences are not passive in any way. The fact the subject is inanimate does not change the active voice nature of the verbs.
Quasi-passive is not a term that is used in traditional grammar study and it is not universally accepted by grammarians. It describes forms which are ambiguous in terms of whether they are a passive form or an adjectival (past participle) form.
For example:
This could be a passive construction (...by the boy) or simply be + adjective (...but it isn't any more). Some use the term quasi-passive to describe this; personally, I don't find it a useful concept.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again Rsb,
It could be either. It's impossible to say without knowing the context.
If you are talking about what you expect the current situation to be, then it would probably be an adjective:
It should be destroyed. (because there was an earthquake/because that was the plan etc)
On the other hand, if you are talking about the future and giving advice then it would be a passive form:
It should be destroyed. (before it's too late/while we are able/before it collapses)
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Juliana,
No, you can't rephrase in that way. You need to introduce the implied subject:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello magnuslin,
Yes, 'love' is a stative verb here, and it is also transitive (with 'this' as its object), as are many other stative verbs.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kapil Kabir
We use 'how' + infinitive to speak about skills. So you can say, for example, 'He knows how to cook', 'She knows how to swim', 'They know how to play billiards'.
Note that in your two sentences, 'don't' should be 'doesn't'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello lella123
As far as I can tell, 'hunter' is a noun and 'by' is a preposition used to indicate the agent. It'd be useful to see the whole sentence and its context.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Dukul
The first verb form ('exits') is already active; the second one ('being challenged') is passive. To make it active, the agent of the passive verb form ('female reporters') should become the subject of the verb: 'after female reporters challenged him'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
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 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
Hello Kapil Kabir
Yes, in informal situations this is fine if 'get' means 'persuade' (see the fifth entry). In a less informal situation, you could say 'The father convinced his son to marry.'
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ajmeer Safi
Our Passives page explains this in some detail. Since I can't summarise it any better than what's there, please have a look. You're welcome to ask us any questions you may have there.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
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