SESSION 1:
REVISION
SESSION 2:
THE PASSIVE VOICE
How to make the Passive in English
We make the passive by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need and then add past participle. For regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding 'ed' to the infinitive. So play becomes played. For irregular verbs, check the third column of irregular verbs in your books. Remember there is a "mirror effect" in the structure:
"I grow pear trees"
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
"Pear trees are grown by me"
SUBJECT PATIENT+ PASSIVE VERB + COMPLEMENT AGENT
"BY agent" is OPTIONAL IN SOME SITUATIONS and can be omitted.
When?
1. I do not know the agent : JFK was assassinated
2. The agent is evident: The thief was finally arrested
3. I do not want it to be known: The jar was broken
There are things that cannot be considered agents. For example:
"The turkey was stuffed with mince meat and breadcrumbs"
AND NOT "by mince meat and breadcrumbs"
VERBS WITH TWO OBJECTS:
When the sentence has more than one object like in:
"I sent a mail to my friends"
SUBJECT +VERB +DIRECT OBJECT +INDIRECT OBJECT
We have two options:
"A mail was sent to my friends by me" (the direct object is the focus)
OR
"My friends were sent a mail by me" (the indirect object is the focus)
Everything depends on what I want to emphasize.
What did you send? A mail was sent to my friends
Who were sent a mail? My friends were sent the mail
IMPERSONAL PASSIVES:
They are used to express widely recognised facts. In Spanish "se sabe, se conoce, se comenta..."
Exercises:
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