Passive Voice

Pre-Test

Passive Exercise 1 (Multiple Choice)
Passive Exercise 2 (Fill-in the Blank)

The passive is used when the action is more important than the person or thing that performs the action. Sometimes we do not know who did the action (e.g. A lot of tea is grown on Chiri Mountain.).

ACTIVE: Mona cooked dinner.
PASSIVE: Dinner was cooked by Mona.

ACTIVE: Mona mailed the letter.
PASSIVE: The letter was mailed by Mona.

Passive Form: be + past participle

The object (e.g. dinner) of an active verb (e.g. cooked) becomes the subject of the verb (was cooked) in the passive. The meaning of the two sentences is the same.

ACTIVE: An accident happened.
PASSIVE: (none)

ACTIVE: I fell.
PASSIVE: (none)

Only transitive verbs (verbs that are followed by an object) are used in the passive. It is not possible to use the verbs such as happen, sleep, come, and seem (intransitive verbs) in the passive.

Tense	Active
simple present	Mona *helps* Tahani.
present progressive	Mona *is helping* Tahani.
present perfect	Mona *has helped* Tahani.
simple past	Mona *helped* Tahani.
past progressive	Mona *was helping* Tahani.
past perfect	Mona *had helped* Tanani.
simple future	Mona *will help* Tahani.
be going to	Mona *is going to help* Tahani.
future perfect	Mona *will have helped* Tahani.

Tense	Passive
simple present	Tahani *is helped* by Mona.
present progressive	Tahani *is being helped* by Mona.
present perfect	Tahani *has been helped* by Mona.
simple past	Tahani *was helped* by Mona.
past progressive	Tahani *was being helped* by Mona.
past perfect	Tahani *had been helped* by Mona.
simple future	Tahani *will be helped* by Mona.
be going to	Tahani *is going to be helped* by Mona.
future perfect	Tahani *will have been helped* by Mona.

Passive Voice

Pre-Test

Tense

Active

Tense

Passive