The Passive explanation and exercise

The Passive is used when we want to emphasize the object and the action being done rather than the subject of the sentence.   We might not even know who the subject is! 

1. Mr. Pine paints the house purple   The active sentence uses the verb paint. 

2. The house is painted purple.  The passive sentence use the verb is painted. 

We can use the passive with different tenses.  Present, Future and Past. 

Present case is the example above.  The form for the passive is is + Past Participle (Third Form of the Verb -V3)

Past:  Form:  was+ Past Participle (Third Form of the Verb -V3)

The handyman fixed the oven.  Active 

The oven was fixed by the handyman Passive.  

Future  Form:  will (verb  be + (Third Form of the Verb -V3)

Eric will play the part of the leading actor in the new film. 

The part of the leading actor will be played by Eric. 

Present perfect:  Form:  has been + (Third Form of the Verb -V3)

Our team has written the computer program. 

The computer program has been written by our team. 

Modals  Form  modal + be base form of the verb. 

Derek can build model airplanes. 

Modal airplanes can be built by Derek.  

Assignment:  Write 5 pairs of sentences in the passive. 

Present

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Past 

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Present Perfect

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Future 

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Modals 

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Passive Simple and Passive Past Simple

Here is a sample of an exercise that I wrote this past week for class.

If you want to see my creative writing go to: www.rachaelorbach.weebly.com

Name________________________ Date__________________________

Argentina thieves tunnel into Buenos Aires bank

Bank robbers in Argentina have tunnelled into a vault and emptied more than 100 safety deposit boxes, police say.

The robbery in Buenos Aires was only detected when bank staff returned to work after the new year weekend.

The thieves are thought to have spent six months digging a 30m (100ft) tunnel complete with lights and ventilation.

Alarms were heard several times overnight but police saw the doors of the bank were shut and took no further action.

Bank executives did not say how much was stolen as the contents of the deposit boxes are confidential.

Hundreds of angry clients were gathered outside the state-owned Banco Provincia branch in the Buenos Aires district of Belgrano to demand their savings and find out if their boxes were broken into.

Exercise:

1. Find all the passive verbs Circle Present Simple Passive, Underline Past Simple Passive.
2. Write your own passive sentence about this event:

Form of Passive :

Present Simple:

Write the sentences that your teacher dictates in this tense:

Form of Passive

Past Simple

Write the sentences that your teacher dictates in this tense: