1. Warm up for the workout
Let's review the form of a sentence in active voice and passive voice. First, read the sentences below and identify the main verb, the subject (the person or thing which is doing the main verb), and the object (the person or thing which the main verb is being done to). Drag and drop the labels into the correct place.
Active voice sentence:
| An environmental scientist |
wrote |
the scientific report |
three years ago. |
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Drag and drop these labels into the correct place above.
main verb |
subject |
object |
extra information |
Passive voice sentence:
| The scientific report |
was written |
three years ago |
by an environmental scientist. |
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Drag and drop these labels into the correct place above.
main verb |
subject |
object |
extra information |
You will see that, in the passive voice sentence above, the main verb is formed like this: to be (was) + past participle (written)
Tense is shown by changing 'to be'.
Also, the object becomes more important than the subject. The subject can even be omitted. However, some verbs in English do not have objects, so they cannot be used in a passive sentence. These verbs are called intransitive verbs. Examples include happen, seem, appear. Therefore, these sentences are incorrect in English:
| Incorrect |
Correct |
It was happened at midnight.  |
It happened at midnight.  |
| It was seemed to be important. |
It seemed to be important. |
| The problems were appeared at the end of last year. |
The problems appeared at the end of last year. |
You can find out whether a verb is intransitive by using a good dictionary, such as
https://dictionary.cambridge.org
You will see an (I) for intransitive after the verb, or a (T) for transitive. For more information, please check here:
https://www.lexico.com/en/transitive-and-intransitive-verbs
2. Strengthen your knowledge
Why do we need a sentence that makes the object more important than the subject, or even removes the subject completely? Here are some reasons. After reading the reasons, drag and drop the corresponding example from the stack below into the right place in the table. One has already been completed.
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We may use passive voice because ...
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1. we don't know who the subject is
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2. the subject is not important
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3. we want to emphasize the object, e.g in a newspaper headline (usually without 'be')
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4. we want to emphasize the object, e.g when describing a process
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5. the subject is obvious and doesn't need to be mentioned
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| eg. |
He will be arrested if he leaves the country. |
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6. we don't want to say who the subject is, perhaps because it is secret or embarrassing
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Drag and drop these example sentences into the right place in the table above.
a. President shot by security staff
b. We are sorry that the machine was repaired badly.
c. The window was broken after I left last night; I didn't see anybody.
d. The building is famous because it has been designed in an environmentally-friendly way.
e. First, the plastic bottles are washed and sorted, then they are heated.
We also use the passive voice in situations when we use a service, i.e. someone else does something for us. Here, we use 'have' or 'got' instead of 'be':
I had my hair cut.
He got his bedroom painted.
She will get the car fixed tomorrow.
