The Passive

Today, we going to learn the passive voice.

But first we going to study the active voice.

The active voice is the typical word order. We put the subject first. The subject is the doer or agent of the verb: 

*Edward Barnes desígned these houses in the 1880s. 

However, in the passive voice the person or Thing that the action was done to becomes the tópic or theme. We can Leave out the doer or agent, or  we can place the doer in a prepositional phrase: 

*These houses were designed in the 1880s (passive withouth agent).

*These houses were designed in the 1880s by Edward Barnes (passive + be + agent). 

We use the passive voice when we want to: 

-change the focus of a clause.

-Or when the doer of the verb is not important or not know.

-Or when if we do not want to say who the doer is.

Now, we going to learn the structure of the passive voice. 

*The most common passive structure is be + -ed form.

 -Five million people watch the show every week. (Active)

-The show is watched by five million people every week. (Passive)

*Also, we can form passive structures with verbs that are followed by an object and some clausses ejerce The verb is following by a preposition: 

My favourite mug was broken.

The holiday hasn’t Been paín for yet.

• We cant make passive forms from verbs Which do no have objects.
• We don’t usually use the passive with some verbs that describe a state or situation.