The fish was eaten by a bear. I was not eaten.

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Passive Voice (Affirmative and Negative)

Intermediate

With the passive voice, you will be able to say that an action happened without saying who did it.

Exercise 1

Sentence Practice

Positive

Reporters write news reports.
News reports are written by reporters.

My father fixed our computers.
Our computers were fixed by my father.

Negative

She does not invite me to parties.
I am not invited to parties by her.

The dog did not chase the cat.
The cat was not chased by the dog.

Grammar Focus

Why do we use the Passive Voice?

We use the passive voice when the subject is not important or when we do not know the subject. For instance, scientists often use the passive voice to talk about their experiments, since the results of an experiment are more important than the people who carried it out.

Active voice: We carried out this experiment to test a new cancer treatment.
Passive voice: This experiment was carried out to test a new cancer treatment. (= It does not matter who carried out the experiment)

The passive voice is also used to avoid revealing the subject. For instance, if you notice your roommate often leaves the bathroom lights on, you can say:

Active: I noticed that you often leave the bathroom lights on.
Passive: I noticed that the bathroom lights are often left on.

By using the passive voice, you avoid directly blaming your roommate.

How do we form the Passive Voice?

A sentence in the active voice focuses on the subject:

Subject + Verb + Object
The bear ate a fish.
John broke our TV.

A sentence in the passive voice focuses on the action:

Subject + Helping Verb be + Past Participle (+ 'by' Agent of Action)
The fish was eaten (by the bear).
Our TV was broken by John.

In the sentences above, the agents (in parentheses) can be omitted.

Other forms of the Passive Voice

To negate a sentence in passive voice, put 'not' after the helping verb: Subject + Helping Verb be + 'not' + Verb (past participle)

The fish was not eaten.
The TV was not broken.

To form the passive voice in future tense, use the future tense of the helping verb 'be'.

The fish will be eaten.
The TV will not / won't be broken.

Exercise 2

Sentence Practice

With Agent

The museum will be visited by millions of people. (= Millions of people will visit the museum.)
Once a week, the house is cleaned by the housekeeper. (= Once a week, the housekeeper cleans the house.)
I was hit by somebody. (= Somebody hit me.)

Without Agent

Dinner is served at 6:00. (= They serve dinner at 6:00.)
The table is set. (= We set the table.)
The money wasn’t stolen. (= Nobody stole the money.)

Exercise 3

Rephrasing Sentences

Rephrase the following sentences in the passive voice.

Example

My secretary prints the documents. → "The documents are printed by my secretary."

My secretary doesn't print the documents.

My secretary didn't print the documents.

My secretary won't print the documents.

Our manager fired three employees.

Their boss won’t sign the contract tomorrow.

They will not show the new film.

Her husband robbed the bank.

Exercise 4

Sentence Building

Your housemate is very messy. Tell them about their bad habits by turning the following actions into sentences in both the passive and active voice.

Example

leave the lights on → "You leave the lights on." + "The lights are left on."

eat my food
leave the TV on
leave the tap on
leave socks on the floor
not wash the dishes