English Grammar : Passive Voice

Education English | English Grammar : Passive Voice | Notice the talk between Mr. Oka and Mr. Andri

Mr. Oka : I heard you've just bought a new cell phone. May I see it?

Mr. Andri : Sorry, it is broken now. I dropped it yesterday when I was in the rest room.

Mr. Oka : What a pity. Do you sell it ?

Mr. Andri : No, it being repaired. It is guaranteed for 18 months.

 There are three bold-typed sentence in the talk :

1.It is broken

2. It is being repaired

3. It is guaranteed.

Those sentences are called passive voice. They are formed for the following archive sentences :

1. I break it.

2. The mechanic is repairing it.

3. The counter where I bought the cell phone guarantees it.

Passive sentences have this pattern : be + V-ed2

It is important to pay attention that the form of be , whether, is, am, are, was, were, or been, must fit with the tenses applied and the type of subject, whether singular or plural. Here are three steps of changing active voice into passive voice :

1. The object of active voice turns into the subject of passive voice.

2. Apply the pattern be (is, am, are, was, were, or been ) + V-ed

3. The subject of active sentence turns into 'by agent' of the passive voice.

Active Voice with two object.

The following verbs requires two objects :give, send, offer, lend, show, pay, promise, call, name and buy.

The active voice has two objects called direct object and indirect object. Therefore, there are two forms of passive voice with different subjects. 

Example :

Active Voice : A friend sent me (Indirect object) a bunch of flower (Direct object).

Passive Voice : I was sent a bunch of flower by a friend.

Passive Voice : A bunch of flower was sent to me by a friend.

Passive voice in negative and interrogative sentence .

Active Voice : Teachers will not tolerate students who come late.

Passive negative : Students who come late will not be tolerated by teachers.

Active Voice : Is the servant washing the dirty clothes?

Passive Interrogative : Are the dirty clothes being washed by the servant ?

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