PASSIVE VOICE How to transform active sentences into

PASSIVE VOICE How to transform active sentences into passive sentences

What is active voice? Active sentence 1: l The boy watches the stars. subject verb object Active sentence 2: l My mom waters the flowers. subject verb object Key: in an active voice sentence, a subject does an action that affects an object.

When do we use the passive voice? 1. 2. 3. 4. When we want to give more importance to the object rather than the subject. When time is not important. When the subject is not important or we don’t know it. When we describe scientific processes.

How to do the transformation? l The boy watches the stars. l Step 1: take the object and put it as the subject. The stars l Step 2: add verb to be verb in the tense of the original verb and then put the main verb in participle. The stars are watched l Step 3: if you want, add the agent preceded by the preposition “by” The stars are watched by the boy

Summarising: The boy watches the stars. The stars are watched by the boy

Tense of the verbs l Pay attention to the tense of the original verb: The kids study Literature is studied by the kids. present The tense of the verb to be is the tense of the main verb in the active sentence.

Tense of the verbs l Pay attention to the tense of the original verb: The teacher explained the class. The class was explained by the teacher. past The tense of the verb to be is the tense of the main verb in the active sentence.

Activity 1 Transform the following sentences from passive to active. l l l l Christopher Columbus discovered America The architect builds the house. My sister bought a magazine this morning. People eat pizza in Italy. They make cars and computers in Korea. The Egyptians build the Pyramids. Aldous Huxley wrote “Brave New World”.

Activity 2 AIDS disease The Statue of Liberty Computers English Movies Penicillin Pork and chicken Strawberries Telephone The Compass Documentaries A great deal of cotton The Lord of the Rings The Sistine Chapel Books Colour TV Cell phones is are was were design discover eat grow invent listen paint produce research see speak study use watch write all over the World. Irapuato. J. R. R. Tolkien. Canada and the US. Alexander Flemming. many people. scientists. Michelangelo. many countries. the BBC. the United States. a Mexican. Egypt. Bartholdi. the Chinese.