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Unit 11 Things That Changed The World Passives

The passage discusses the active and passive voice in English grammar. It defines the active voice as having the subject perform the action of the verb, while the passive voice has the subject receive the action. It provides examples like "The woman reads the novel" in the active versus "The novel is read by all the students" in the passive. The passage also notes that verbs in the passive voice can be changed to any tense by changing the form of "to be" and discusses other grammatical changes that occur when changing between active and passive voice, like making the direct object the subject.

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363 views5 pages

Unit 11 Things That Changed The World Passives

The passage discusses the active and passive voice in English grammar. It defines the active voice as having the subject perform the action of the verb, while the passive voice has the subject receive the action. It provides examples like "The woman reads the novel" in the active versus "The novel is read by all the students" in the passive. The passage also notes that verbs in the passive voice can be changed to any tense by changing the form of "to be" and discusses other grammatical changes that occur when changing between active and passive voice, like making the direct object the subject.

Uploaded by

Victoria Fonseca
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Unit 11

Things that changed the world


Passives

THE PASSIVE

What is meant by the active and the passive voice?

The terms active voice and passive voice are used to describe the relationship
between the verb and the subject.

A sentence is in the active voice when the subject is the performer of the
action.

e.g. The woman reads the novel

subject verb direct object

A sentence is in the passive voice when the subject is the receiver of the
action.

e.g. The novel is read by all the students.


subject verb agent

In this example the subject receives the action of the verb. The performer of
the action, if mentioned, is introduced by the word “by”. The performer is called
the agent.

Verbs in the passive voice can occur in all different tenses. The tense of the
auxiliary “to be” indicates the tense of the main verb.

e.g. The novel is read by the woman.

present passive

The novel was read by the woman.

imperfect passive

The novel has been read by the woman.

perfect passive

The novel had been read by the woman.


pluperfect passive

The novel will be read by the woman.

future passive

The novel will have been read by the woman.

future perfect passive

In short, in English when an active sentence is changed into a passive one, the
following changes occur.

1) The direct object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the
passive sentence.

Active: The mechanic is repairing the car.

direct object

Passive: The car is repaired by the mechanic.

subject
2) The tense of the verb in the active sentence is reflected in the tense of
the verb “to

be” in the passive sentence.

Active: We read the novel.

present

Passive: The novel is (being) read.

present

Active: We have read the novel.

perfect

Passive: The novel has been read.

perfect

3) The subject of the active sentence becomes the agent of the passive
sentence.
Active: Many people saw the film.

subject

Passive: The film was seen by many people.

agent

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