Exercise: how to use and construct the passive.

The passive voice is used where there is less importance or emphasis on the 1) (object / subject) of a sentence like "the police arrested the criminal" and more importance on what happened or who it happened to. The passive voice uses the auxiliary verb 2) . (to be / to have)

"The criminal 3) (was / has) arrested." ...

The fact that it was the police who arrested the criminal is not 4) . (correct / important) What is important is that the criminal was arrested. Grammatically, we now say that "the criminal" is now the subject of the 5) (active / passive) sentence.

The passive is very flexible in English; the subject of a passive voice sentence can often be either the 6) (indirect / direct) object or the indirect 7) (object / subject) of the active voice sentence:

"She gave him some flowers" ... (active) - "Some flowers 8) (was / were) given to him" ... (passive)

"She gave him some flowers" (active) - "He 9) (was / were) given some flowers" ... (passive)

The following is a way to change an active voice sentence into a passive sentence in three easy steps:

Active voice: "They are building a bridge". ...

1) The complement of the active sentence is placed at the front of the passive sentence:

"A 10) ..." (building / bridge)

2) The auxiliary "to be" is placed in the same tense and aspect of the verb in the active sentence. (The verb here is in present continuous so this must be the same in the passive):

"A bridge is 11) ..." (building / being)

3) The verb in the active form is then put in as a past participle:

"A bridge is being 12. ." ... (built / been)

Optionally, the active voice subject may be placed at the end (this is called the "agent"). The preposition "by" is used:

"A bridge is being built 13. them". ... (for / by)

With modal auxiliaries verbs the same steps are respected; the modal verb form is copied into the passive.

Active: "The police could 14. (to watch / watch) the thieves through telescopes." ...

Passive: "The thieves could be 15. (watched / watching) through telescopes." ...