The Passive Voice

WHAT IS THE PASSIVE VOICE? In general we tend to use the active voice. That is when a subject does an action to an object. The passive voice is used when we want to emphasize the action (the verb) and the object of a sentence rather than subject. This means that the subject is either less important than the action itself or that we don’t know who or what the subject is. Example: A. Somebody stole my laptop. (subject = Somebody / action(verb) = stole / object = my laptop) B. My laptop was stolen. (The object – now the subject = My laptop / action= was stolen) FORMING THE PASSIVE VOICE The passive voice is not a tense in English. Each tense has its own passive voice which is created by using a form of the auxiliary verb to be + V3 (past participle).

PASSIVE VOICE – EXERCISES Fill in the correct passive form of the verb in parentheses. Samples A. After the earthquake, aid was sent to the people of Haiti. (sent) B. The electricity was cut off because the bill hadn’t been paid. (not pay) 1. Penicillin ______ by Alexander Fleming in 1928. (discover) 2. Statements ______ from all the witnesses at this moment. (take) 3. Whales ______ by an international ban on whaling. (must protect) 4. Both weddings _______ by Good Taste. (cater) 5. A Picasso ____ from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.(steal) 6. ____ this washing machine ______in Germany? (make) 7. Tea _____ in China. (grow) 8. When we reached the airport, we found that all the flights____ due to the storm. (cancel) 9. The fax _____ until tomorrow morning. (not send) 10. The soundtrack of a movie _____ always _____ after the filming is finished. (is/add)