C1 – PASSIVE VOICE Part 1

When mastering a C1 level, it is very important to use the passive voice effectively in certain contexts. Here you have some rules.

Form:

The passive voice is made with the different tenses of the verb to be + past participle.

Present Simple: The sauce is made of oranges.

Present Continuous: Seven hundred staff are being made redundant.

Past Simple: It was invented in 1938 by Chester Carlson.

Present Perfect: All the money in the safe has been stolen.

Past Continuous: The factory was being built when I last came here.

Future with will: A weak signal will be emitted.

Future with going to: A division is going to be sold.

Modal: My boss may be given a pay rise this year.

· Verbs with two objects.

Verbs which have two objects can be made passive in two ways:

I was handed a note. / A note was handed to me.

Other common verbs of this type are: bring, give, lend, pass, pay promise, sell, send, show, tell.

· Verb with object and complement.

Some verbs have a noun or adjective which describes their object:

We elected him class representative.

Everyone considered him a failure.

When these are made passive, the complement goes directly after the verb:

Jim was elected class representative.

He was considered a failure.

Uses of the passive:

· When you do not know who or what does the action.

The cable TV is connected to our phone.

The eggs are made of chocolate.

· When you are not interested in who or what does something:

All the electrical appliances were shut down.

· When you want to take away the focus of personal responsibility, especially in sales brochures and product information to give an official tone.

It is believed that the fault will be repaired in due course.

We usually begin a passive sentence with the known information and end the sentence with the new information. You can use a passive infinitive as the subject of a sentence for emphasis.

To be connected by e-mail is not very sociable.

You can use a passive infinitive without to after modal verbs.

The Internet should be controlled by the government.

· To describe processes.

The data has to be collected, then it’s analyzed, and finally the results are published.

o When you have a generalized agent.

If the subject is ‘people in general’ or ‘you’, the agent is not mentioned.

Bicycles are widely used in the city instead of public transport.

Uses of the passive Gerund:

· As the subject of a sentence.

Being connected to an e-mail system is very useful.

· As the object of a sentence.

Most people like being contacted by e-mail.

· With a preposition.

People are afraid of being censored by the government.

Powered by: CAPMAN