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Passive Voice

Sometimes you say things like, "My bike was stolen," or, "The boy was given a gift." But who stole my bike? Who gave the boy a gift? You aren’t sure. That’s why you use the passive voice, which emphasizes the person or thing an action was done to, not the one who did the action.

Passive voice is normally formed with to be + a past participle, as in, "Chris was hired yesterday." You can use the passive voice in any tense by changing the form of 'to be.' For instance, you can say, "My cookie was eaten" (past tense) or, "My cookie is being eaten" (present progressive tense).

When you want to include the one who performed the action in a passive voice sentence, you use the word 'by' after the verb. For instance, "Danny will be picked up by his mother today."

Sometimes, the verb 'to get' is used instead of 'to be,' as in "My sister got sick last night."

Passive Voice Grammar Quiz

  1. The same song many times.

  2. Quantum of Solace in many different countries.

  3. Many children by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

  4. Several speeding drivers by police officers recently.

  5. Kate Winslet an Academy Award.

Go Super to see the answers! Go Super!

Passive Voice Lessons:

Give the Green Light

Revolutionary Road

Changeling

Vintage Clothes

Home Repair

Katy Perry

Traffic Tickets

Quantum of Solace

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Comments

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yawar

yawar

Pakistan

it’s very hard for me in any time and i have still confussion here and didn’t fully understand it,

10:48 AM Apr 11 2013 |

abdirashiid

Somalia

it’s indeed very easy to understand 

10:53 PM Mar 11 2013 |

bat_julie8

Mongolia

How to teach passive voice fun and easy for students? Please, give me some advice


11:20 AM Mar 10 2013 |

Serena Jue

Afghanistan

my bike was stolen last year!

11:19 AM Nov 27 2012 |

amadoun

Morocco

good lesson

12:31 PM Oct 16 2012 |

HelenaS

HelenaS

Russian Federation

It really helps my students to learn))

05:24 AM May 08 2012 |

beauman

beauman

Algeria

it is so easy l looking for

10:55 PM May 07 2012 |

hind martinèèz

Morocco

not bad

09:58 PM May 06 2012 |

l0nelyWind

l0nelyWind

Viet Nam

it’s so easy

04:22 PM Mar 15 2012 |

munisa alimatova

Uzbekistan

Wink

11:47 AM Mar 14 2012 |