Passive
Sentence
Use of Passive
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. Use of the passive voice
is not a grammatical error. It’s a stylistic issue that pertains to
clarity—that is, there are times when using the passive voice can prevent a
reader from understanding what you mean. In a passive sentence, the subject
does not perform the action in the sentence. In fact, the action is performed
on it.
Example:
My bike was stolen.
Form of Passive
When
rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:
the
object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
the
finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
the
subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or
is dropped)
Tense
|
Subject
|
Verb
|
Object
|
|
Simple
Present
|
Active
(S + V1 (s/es) + O/C)
|
Rita
|
writes
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + To Be (am, is, are) + V3 + O/C)
|
A
letter
|
is
written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Simple
Past
|
Active
(S + V2 + O/C)
|
Rita
|
wrote
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + was/were + V3 + O/C)
|
A
letter
|
was
written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Present
Perfect
|
Active
(S + have/has + V3 + O/C)
|
Rita
|
has
written
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + have/has + been + V3 +O/C)
|
A
letter
|
has
been written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Simple
Future
|
Active
(S + will/shall + V1 + O/C)
|
Rita
|
will
write
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + will/shall + be + V3 + O/C)
|
A
letter
|
will
be written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Present
Continuous
|
Active
(S + To Be (am, is, are) + Ving + O/C)
|
Rita
|
is
writing
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + To Be + (am, is, are) + being + V3 + O/C)
|
A
letter
|
is
being written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Past
Continuous
|
Active
(S + was/were + Ving + O/C)
|
Rita
|
was
writing
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + was/were + being + V3 + O/C)
|
A
letter
|
was
being written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Future
Perfect
|
Active
(S + will/shall + have + V3 + O/C)
|
Rita
|
will
have written
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + will/shall + have + been + V3 + O/C)
|
A
letter
|
will
have been written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Past
Perfect
|
Active
(S + had + V3 + O/C)
|
Rita
|
had
written
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + had + been + V3 + O/C)
|
A
letter
|
had
been written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Past
Future
|
Active
(S + would/should + V1 + O/C)
|
Rita
|
would
write
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + would/should + be + V3 + O/C)
|
A
letter
|
would
be written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
Past
Future Perfect
|
Active
(S + would/should + have + V3 + O/C)
|
Rita
|
would
have written
|
a
letter.
|
Passive
(S + would/should + have + been + V3 +
O/C)
|
A
letter
|
would
have been written
|
by
Rita.
|
|
