Passive Voice for Competitive English

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In today's article, we shall discuss about Voice. There are two special forms for verbs called voice. Those are 

1. Active voice
2. Passive voice

The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb. The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb. Have a look at the following table of examples for better understand of the voices.

The Active Voice	The Passive Voice
Cats Eat Fish.	Fish are Eaten by Cats.

Now Lets see Where and When we should use Passive Voice : 

1. Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action. 
• Example: "A letter was written." The focus, here, is on the fact that a letter was written. We don't know, however, who wrote it. 
2. Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice. Have a look at the following example.ExampleA vase was broken.

Focus, here, is on the fact that a vase was broken, but we don't blame anyone. Compare this to: "You broke the vase."

Form of the passive voice:

Subject + the appropriate form of to be + Past Participle

Note : The appropriate form of to be = To be is put in the the tense of the active voice main verb.

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following : 

• The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
• The form of the verb is the appropriate form of to be (the tense of the active voice main verb) + the past participle.
• The subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped.)

Example:

Active	Shivani	makes	tea
	subject	verb	object
Passive	Tea	is made	(by  Shivani )
	object becoming subject	verb	subject becoming object or is dropped

Examples of the passive voice:

Tense		Subject	Verb	Object
Simple Present	Active:	Shivani	makes	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	is made	by  Shivani .
Present Progressive	Active:	Shivani	is making	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	is being made	by  Shivani .
Simple Past	Active:	Shivani	made	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	was made	by  Shivani .
Past Progressive	Active:	Shivani	was making	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	was being made	by  Shivani .
Present Perfect	Active:	NShivaniancy	has made	Tea.
	Passive:	Tea	has been made	by  Shivani .
Past Perfect	Active:	Shivani	had made	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	had been made	by  Shivani .
Future simple	Active:	Shivani	will make	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	will be made	by  Shivani .
Future perfect	Active:	Shivani	will have made	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	will have been made	by  Shivani .
Conditional	Active:	Shivani	would make	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	would be made	by  Shivani .
Modals	Active:	Shivani	can make	tea.
	Passive:	Tea	can be made	by  Shivani .

Passive voice sentences with two Objects:

Rewriting an active sentence with two objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you want to put the focus on. Have a look at the following Examples. 

Active/Passive	Subject	Verb	Object 1	Object 2
Active:	Shivani	offered	a flower	to me.
Passive:	A flower	was offered	to me	by  Shivani .
Passive:	I	was offered	a flower	by  Shivani .

Impersonal Passive:

Have a look at the following Examples :

• They say that the planet is in danger.
• It is said that the planet is in danger.

This type of passive is called impersonal because we use the impersonal form "it is..." This is only possible with verbs of perception (e. g. say, think, know ...)

Ex :   

• It is said that...
• It is thought that...
• It is believed that...
• It is known that...                   

It is also common that we start the passive form of these sentences with the subject of the that-clause:

Ex : 

• They say that the planet is in danger.= The planet is said to be in danger.
• They think that women live longer than men. = Women are thought to live longer.

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