12 The passive and the causative
12.1 General information about form
12.1 A Basic forms of the passives LEG 12.1-3]
1 In the active voice, the subject of the verb is the person or thing that does the action:
John burnt the dinner last night.
In the passive voice, the action is done to the subject: The dinner was burnt last night.2 We form the passive with a suitable form of be + past participle. Only verbs which take an object
(transitive verbs [>1.2B]) can go into the passive:
The dinner was burnt. (But not *The plane was arrived. *)3 Basic tense forms are a tense of be + past participle:
present: he writes it is written
past: he wrote it was written
present/past perfect: he has/had written -» it has/had been written4 Basic modal forms are: modal + be/have been + past participle:
will: he will write it will be written
may: he may write -* it may be v,ritten
may have: he may have written -» it may have been written, etc.5 Infinitive: to be/to have been + past participle [> 16.1 A]:
he is/was to write it is to be written/it was to have been writtenWrite 1 : Mark with a P those sentences which will go into the passive.
1 Someone will drive you to the airport. P_ 6 They informed me about it. _
2 Goldfish live in fresh water.^7 I slept till 8. _
3 The Egyptians built pyramids. 8 It's raining.
4 We walked for miles yesterday. 9 You must obey the rules.
5 They arrived at 7 last night. 10 He's sneezing again.Write 2: Rewrite these sentences in the passive.
1 They owe a lot of money to the bank.
A _ Lot. qf_ ШЩ;. й,. owtd,_. ¿o, /{пщк,...
2 They have proved that there is no life on the moon.
It
3 You can buy videos like this one anywhere.4 Someone has to write the history of the European Community one day.5 Someone may have already written the history of the European Community.6 When we arrived home, we found that someone had broken one of our windows.7 They have soio their car to pay their debts.8 They hold a meeting in the village hall once a week.