2015-08-21
882
THE ENGLISH TENSES IN THE PASSIVE VOICE
| Tense | Present | Past | Future | Future-in-the-Past | |
| Indefinite | to be asked | am is asked are Is she asked? She is not asked | was asked were Was she asked? She was not asked | shall be asked will be Will he be asked? He won’t be asked | should be asked would be |
| Continuous | to be being asked | am is being asked are | was being asked were | _______________ | ____________ |
| Perfect | to have been asked | have been asked has been | had been asked | shall have been asked will have been | should have been asked would have been |
| Perfect Continuous | _________ | _______________ | ______________ | _________________ | ______________ |
Formation
Tenses in Passive Voice
| Tenses | Active | Passive |
| Present simple | We bake the bread here. | The bread is baked here. BE + 3V= am/is/are + 3V |
| Present continuous | We are baking the bread. | The bread is being baked. BE + being + 3V |
| Present Perfect | We have baked the bread. | The bread has been baked. Have/has been + 3V |
| Past simple | We baked the bread yesterday. | The bread was baked yesterday. BE (was/were) + 3V |
| Past Continuous | We were baking the bread. | The bread was being baked. BE + being + 3V |
| Past Perfect | We had baked the bread. | The bread had been baked. Had been + 3V |
| Future Indefinite | We will bake the bread next. | The bread will be baked next. Will/shall be + 3V |
| Future Perfect (seldom used) | We will have baked the bread by then. | The bread will have been baked (will be baked) by then. |
| Going to | We are going to bake the bread. | The bread is going to be baked. Be going + to be +3V |
| Modal verbs: should ought to be + 3V have to can might/may | We should bake the bread soon. We ought to bake the bread. We have to repair the machine. How canwe solve the problem? They mightannounce the news soon. We must do this now. | The bread should be baked soon. Should be +3V The bread ought to be baked. Ought to be +3V The machine has to be repaired. Have to +3V How canthe problem be solved? Can be +3V The news might be announced soon. Might be + 3V This must be done now. Must be + 3V |
By & with are often used with the Passive Voice: By means the doer of the action, with means the device of the action.
The house was built by my father. The test was written by pupils in pencils.
The house was built with building devices.
| Active Voice | Passive Voice |
  Alexander Bell invented the telephone.
subject (agent) object
(An agent is a person or thing doing the action)
We say Bell invented the telephone because we are talking about Bell, and the new information is that he invented the telephone.
When the subject is the agent, then we use an active verb.
| A. The telephone was invented by Alexander Bell. Subject object (agent) We say The telephone was invented by Bell because we are talking about the telephone, and the new information is that it was invented by Bell. When the subject is not the agent, we use a passive verb. In this sentence the subject the telephone is not the agent, it is the thing that the action is directed at. B.When we want to say who or what did the action, we use by.On our way home we were stopped by the police. The paper was all blownaway by the wind. The thing that is used to perform an action is called “the instrument”. If we want to include this we use with.He was hit on the head with a hammer. C.We can give other details about the action. For example, we can use a phrase saying when or wheresomething happens. The telephone was invented in 1876. The visitors will be driven to theairpor t. The concerts are usually held at the u niversity. D.Sometimes there is no phrase after the verb. A new swimming pool is being built. All the documents have been destroyed. |
The passive with get
A. Sometimes we use get in the passive instead of be which is more informal. It is used for something happening by accident or unexpectedly.
Lots postmen get bitten by dogs. (= are bitten). I’ m always getting chosen for the worst jobs. (am being chosen)
B. In negatives and questions in the present simple and past simple, we use a form of do.
The windows don’t get cleaned very often. How did the painting get damaged?
C. We also use get in these expressions (which are not passive in meaning): get dressed/changed, get washed (= wash oneself), get engaged, get married, get divorced, get started (= start), get lost (= lose one's way).
Emma and Matthew might get married. Without a map we soon got lost.
