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Hid the truth! With passive voice!

Hid the truth! With passive voice!

Date: Mar 07 2008

Topic: Grammar

Author: mitchelkSuper Member!

Lesson

Did you do something bad? Did your brother do your English homework? Did you drink the last beer?

With passive voice, you can describe actions without telling who did it.

For example, normally you would have to say, "I spilled the beer." With passive voice, you can say, "the beer was spilled."

The two sentences mean the same thing, except with passive voice you don't know who spilled the beer.

Ok, so now you know that the passive voice can be useful, but how do you make it?

First, let's review normal sentences. Normal sentences have:          subject + verb + object

  • The subject is the person or thing that is doing something.
  • The verb is the action.
  • The object is the thing being acted on.

An example would be:

 The dog bit the man.

  • The dog is the subject.
  • Bit is the verb.
  • The man is the object.


To make a sentence passive:

Put the object first, put the verb to be in the same tense as the normal sentence and add the past particle of the verb. And if you would like to tell who did it add by.

Object + Verb to be + past participle (by + Subject).

The man was bitten by the dog.
OR
The man was bitten.

I will give a few more examples:

Present Tense:
Active: She eats cheese. Passive: The cheese is eaten.
Active: I love him. Passive: He is loved.
Active: I stole the bike. Passive: The bike was stolen by me.

Past Tense:

Active: The fire destroyed the town. Passive: The town was destroyed.
Active: I wrote you a letter. Passive: A letter was written to you by me.
Active: I watched TV. Passive: TV was watched by me.

Now, can you guys try to make a few passive sentences in the comments. I will check back and make sure they are all correct. Give it a try!

Comments

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dodo506

Egypt

i read  this lesson and it is v.good

the lesson

07:03 PM Jul 08 2008 |

dodo506

Egypt

i read  this lesson and it is v.good

the

07:03 PM Jul 08 2008 |

zaw tun

zaw tun

Myanmar

Good lesson.thanks.

My belove was eaten by money.

Money ate my belove.

09:55 AM Jul 08 2008 |

whacko

Turkey

I love you – You loved by me

I dunno it's right or not.I just  wanted 2 try :)

01:43 PM Jul 02 2008 |

STAR'B

China

Let's me try this
The accident was happened by a dog.
Actually, i think that is "The accident was happened."

Is that correct?

02:45 PM Jun 29 2008 |

cakk

Turkey

great job!!

04:49 PM Jun 27 2008 |

mitchelk

mitchelkSuper Member!

United States

Great Job you guys!

08:36 AM Jun 27 2008 |

Butterfly1

Butterfly1

Lithuania

They mended my watch yesterday.

My watch was mended yesterday.Laughing

08:01 AM Jun 27 2008 |

Rosa Huang

Rosa Huang

China

I played table tennis yesterday.

passive:the table tennis was played by me yesterday.

01:54 AM Jun 26 2008 |

stegee

stegee

United Kingdom

The examples were given.

12:17 PM Jun 25 2008 |

stegee

stegee

United Kingdom

The examples were given.

12:17 PM Jun 25 2008 |

rizkhanpsy

rizkhanpsy

Pakistan

Open the door

Let the door be opened.  

11:15 AM Jun 25 2008 |

suganthi senthilvel

India

They hid the truth by compulsion

is it right? or wrong

pls reply me 

02:05 PM Jun 06 2008 |

lillll

United States

i beat my brother,

my brother isbeaten

in a second thought i wouldnt hide myself  , i prefer to say by me

its a nice lesson thnks

10:08 PM Jun 02 2008 |

Sparklet

Sparklet

Bulgaria

I'm drinking coffee.

The coffee is being drunk by me. 

07:24 PM May 23 2008 |

Yogurt

Yogurt

Kazakhstan

 

I opened the window

The window was opened 

03:18 PM May 23 2008 |

torina

torina

Mozambique

Did you do something bad? Did your brother do your English homework? Did you drink the last beer?

With passive voice, you can describe actions without telling who did it.

For example, normally you would have to say, "I spilled the beer." With passive voice, you can say, "the beer was spilled."

The two sentences mean the same thing, except with passive voice you don't know who spilled the beer.

Ok, so now you know that the passive voice can be useful, but how do you make it?

First, let's review normal sentences. Normal sentences have:          subject + verb + object

  • The subject is the person or thing that is doing something.
  • The verb is the action.
  • The object is the thing being acted on.

An example would be:

 The dog bit the man.

  • The dog is the subject.
  • Bit is the verb.
  • The man is the object.


To make a sentence passive:

Put the object first, put the verb to be in the same tense as the normal sentence and add the past particle of the verb. And if you would like to tell who did it add by.

Object + Verb to be + past participle (by + Subject).

The man was bitten by the dog.
OR
The man was bitten.

I will give a few more examples:

Present Tense:
Active: She eats cheese. Passive: The cheese is eaten.
Active: I love him. Passive: He is loved.
Active: I stole the bike. Passive: The bike was stolen by me.

Past Tense:

Active: The fire destroyed the town. Passive: The town was destroyed.
Active: I wrote you a letter. Passive: A letter was written to you by me.
Active: I watched TV. Passive: TV was watched by me.

Now, can you guys try to make a few passive sentences in the comments. I will check back and make sure they are all correct. Give it a try!

12:09 PM May 17 2008 |

tianyiyoufeng

China

i read this artical.

the artical is read.

12:42 PM May 11 2008 |

KIARAH

KIARAH

Ecuador

mmmm… im scared!

ok.. here i go!

"You made my english better"... "my english was made better by you"

How was that???Embarassed

04:51 PM May 07 2008 |

rusminah

rusminah

Malaysia

Hi ZhengXiang

I always wanted to learn Mandarin. I  know some of basic words. It is very hard to practice the four tone of Mandarin. 

08:07 AM May 02 2008 |

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