Practice Makes Perfect

Passive Voice

The passive voiceis a structure that allows you to make a statement

without knowing who performed the action of the sentence: The

house was destroyed.Or the person who performed the action is

placed in a passive positionin the sentence: The house was destroyed by

soldiers.

An activesentence is commonly structured subjectverbdirect

object. A passivesentence changes that structure to direct objectused

as the subjectto bepast participlebysubjectused as the object

of the preposition. Let’s compare the two structures:

Active Sentences Passive Sentences

Kim finds the dog. The dog is found by Kim.

We buy his car. His car is bought by us.

The girls stole the purse. The purse was stolen by the girls.

They solved the problem. The problem was solved by them.

The verb to bein the passive sentences is conjugated in the same

tense as the verb in the active sentences. Look how the various

tenses appear in the passive:

Tense Passive Sentences

Present The house is destroyed by the soldiers.

Past The house was destroyed by the soldiers.

Present Perfect The house has been destroyed by the soldiers.

Past Perfect The house had been destroyed by the

soldiers.

Future The house will be destroyed by the soldiers.

Future Perfect The house will have been destroyed by the

soldiers.

Only in the present and past tenses is there a difference between

the habitual form of the conjugation and the conjugation for an

action in progress or incomplete:

the house is destroyed/the house is being destroyed

the house was destroyed/the house was being destroyed

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Unit 7

03 (044-061) Units 6-9 11/3/04 1:41 PM Page 49

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