Grammar — The passive: The form
- The passive is made with a form of be and a past participle.
Grammar — The passive: The agent
- We often use the passive to draw special attention to the agent by moving it to the end of the sentence. If we mention the agent, we use by.
- Active: A British coffee company created ‘Fresh Brew’. (attention on Fresh Brew)
- Passive: ‘Fresh Brew’ was created by a British coffee company. (attention on the company)
- In the above example, we mention the agent (a British company) because it is new and important information.
- We don’t mention the agent if it is:
- obvious: A transmitter is worn on the body. (We know it is worn by a person.)
- unknown: Maher realised he had been followed. (We do not know who followed him.)
- unimportant: It will be shown at the ‘New Inventors’ show. (Who will show it is not important.)
- Present Simple: A transmitter is worn on the body and digital messages are sent via the body’s electrical field.
- Present Continuous: The invention is being welcomed by coffee-lovers everywhere.
- Past Simple: ‘Fresh Brew’ was created by British coffee company ‘Beans R Us’.
- Past Continuous: When we last heard, the ‘mirror’ was still being developed in a lab in France.
- Present Perfect: Once a profile of your lifestyle has been built up …
- Past Perfect: When Aisha realised she had been followed to her front door, she quickly phoned the police.
- Modal verbs in passive: It can be switched on by text message. Music and games could be downloaded in seconds. It should not be used as protection from wild animals.
- going to: It is going to be shown at the ‘New Inventors’ show next month.
- will: A computer shows how your appearance will be affected in future.
- The passive infinitive: There’s one drawback: it needs to be filled with coffee and water first. The company expects their invention to be launched next year.
- The passive gerund: It’s a ‘must have’ if you are worried about being attacked. Nobody likes being told about their bad habits, especially by a computer!
- Some verbs are usually followed by the infinitive and others by a gerund form:
- I require you to be on time.
- I don’t fancy going out tonight.
- When these verbs are used in the passive, the same verb patterns should be used:
- The humans who were required to be in the self-driving car …
- I don’t really fancy being monitored at all!
Grammar — The passive: Contexts for the passive
- We usually avoid the passive in informal language.
- We can use you or they to refer to people in general:
- Look! You can switch it on by text message.
- They expect to launch the invention next year.
- The passive is common in newspaper reports and academic writing because it makes the style more impersonal and objective.
Grammar — The passive: The passive with two objects
- Some verbs can have two objects, and either object can become the subject in the passive – it depends where the writer wants to put the focus:
- It will show people the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle.
- People will be shown the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle.
- The consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle will be shown to people.
- It gives anyone who touches it an electric shock.
- Anyone who touches it is given an electric shock.
- An electric shock is given to anyone who touches it.
- Other verbs like this are: hand, offer, pay, promise, send, teach.