The passive voice:
We use the passive form when we don’t know the subject or we want to focus on the object because it is more important. And of course there must be an object in the sentence.
How do we change an active sentence into passive?
1- We put the object at the beginning.
2- We change the main verb to v3. (Past participle)
3- Between them we put verb to be as follows:
a- Simple present tense we put am / is /are
He eats an apple. (Active)
An apple is eaten. (Passive)
Sam eats apples.
Apples are eaten by Sam.
Notice: when the subject is definite we pu it at the end of the sentence preceded with “by”.
b- Simple past tense we put was /were
He ate apples.
Apples were eaten.
c- Present continuous and past continuous we put “being” after verb to be.
He is eating an apple.
An apple is being eaten.
Tom was eating apples.
Apples were being eaten by Tom.
d- Present perfect and past perfect we put “been” after verb to have.
He has eaten apples.
Apples have been eaten.
Sam had eaten an apple.
An apple had been eaten by Sam.
e- Future tense and with auxiliary verbs, we put “be” after the auxiliary verb.
He will eat apples.
Apples will be eaten.
Sam can eat a lot of apples.
A lot of apples can be eaten by Sam.
Tom must eat apples.
Apples must be eaten by Tom….etc
The other tenses don’t have passive form because they already contain “be” or “been”.
Thank you
Majed
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