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Showing posts with label Passive Voice for Competitive English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Passive Voice for Competitive English. Show all posts

Monday, 12 July 2010

Passive Voice for Competitive English


 Passive Voice for Competitive English

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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