UNIT 5

 

Bob Geldof wrote this song   is an active sentence.

This song was written by Bob Geldof    is a passive sentence.

The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence and the subject of the active sentence becomes the object, introduced by the preposition BY.

We form the passive with the verb BE + a past participle.

                      Subject  +  verb  +  past participle

                    “The video was shown on TV last night.”

	Active	Passive
Present simple	DJs imitate his style	His style is imitated by DJs
Present continuous	He is recording a new album.	A new album is being recorded.
Past simple	The Beatles sang Yesterday.	Yesterday was sung by The Beatles.
Past continuous	They were playing rock music.	Rock music was being played.
Present perfect	She has released a new album.	A new album has been released.
Will	People will replace CDs.	CDs will be replaced.
Going to	He is going to record a new song.	A new song is going to be recorded.
Modal verbs	They can download music.	Music can be downloaded.

         USE: We use the passive when the person or thing doing the action isn’t important or isn’t known. We’re more interested in the things that happen rather than who makes them.

* Verbs with two objects

Verbs which have two objects can be made passive in two ways.

Active voice: They bough Tom Rihana’s new CD.

Passive voice: Rihana’s new CD was bought to Tom.

Passive voice: Tom was bought Rihana’s new CD.

We can use the following verbs in this structure: allow, bring, give, leave, lend, offer, pay, promise, sell, send, show and teach.

EXERCISES: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 .

And if you still need more, watch the video or check old entries.

Listening exercises: 1 and 2.