Grammar : Passive Voice

Grammar : Passive Voice

Hello, dear learners!

Today we'll start learning Passive Voice.

How to form Passive verbs?

As usual, let's start our lesson with the examining of the table Verbs' Forms :
 Passive Voice:

As you can see, the passive voice is formed with the verb to be in its forms of Present
(am, is, are), Past (was, were) or Future  (will be) for Simple and Continuous and
 its  perfect form( to have been) for Perfect + Past Participle (V3) of the main verb.
So, if you see any form of the verb to be +V3, you may say it is one of the Passsive
 forms of the verb.

If we compare this table with the table of Active voice, we'll see that in the Passive
 voice we have got only three groups instead of four in Active , they are : Simple,
 Continuous and Perfect.We haven' t got Perfect Continuous and Future Continuous
 forms!

The rules for tense usage in the Passive are the same as in the Active: Present Simple
 to express habit; past simple to express a finished action in the past; Present Perfect
to express the action that related to the present and so on.

Why should we use the  Passive voice?

We use the forms of the Passive Voice

•  to make the statements more   formal or more polite.These forms are often 
• used in news reports, instuctions, headlines, advertisements,etc.;
• when the action is more important than the agent;
• when the person who does the action is unknownor unimportant .

. As we have just learnt, The Passive forms are often used in newspaper columns,
so try to find them in these sentences.

Cally Simpson was on holiday at the Villa Marina resort in Salou, Catalonia,
with her dad Steven and grandmother when she was found unconscious.

The girl, from Arbroath, Angus, was pulled from the pool by another tourist and
 attempts were made to resuscitate her.

She is now said be in a stable condition at the intensive care unit at a children's
 hospital in Barcelona.

A Facebook page, Saving Cally Simpson, was set up to raise funds to pay for Kate's
 travel costs and now has more than 1,500 supporters.

 Check yourself:

Cally Simpson was on holiday at the Villa Marina resort in Salou, Catalonia, .
with her dad Steven and grandmother when she was found unconscious.

The girl, from Arbroath, Angus, was pulled from the pool by another tourist and attempts were made to resuscitate her.

She is now said be in a stable condition at the intensive care unit at a children's 
hospital in Barcelona.

Grammar. Passive Voice: Present,Past, Future Simple

Hello ,dear learners!

This is the second lesson devoted to the Passive voice.

Today we'll learn the  Passive forms for  Simple.

  The main formula of this group is to be + V3(past participle).

NOTES

• Hope, you remember the forms of the verb to be, we studied them . 
• You should revise the list of the irregular verbs to use the correct V3 forms.

To change tenses (present, past or future), you should only change the forms of 
the auxiliary verb to be, V3 is the same for all the tenses! Look here:

The email is checked every morning. (Present Simple pas.)
The email was checked an hour ago (Past Simple Pas.)
The email will be checked tomorrow. ( Future Simple Pas.)

The rules for tense usage are the same as in the Active voice :

• regular action for Present Simple;
• finished action in the past for Past Simple;
• future action for Future Simple.

If you want to make a negative sentence and a question you should use the first 
auxiliary verb (it is the general rule for all the tenses in the  Active and Passive voice).

Are the flowers watered every day?
Were the flowers watered yesterday?
Will the flowers be watered tomorrow?

Hockey isn't played in summer.
Hockey wasn't played yesterday.
I think,hockey won't be played in a week.

What is the difference between Active and Passive statements?

 And why do we have two voices in English?

Let's see. As you know, English sentences have a strict word order  : 

Subject (who or what makes /does an action) - Verb (action) -Object. 

The word order is the same for the active and passive sentences .  So,where is 
the difference?
 It's here: 
  in the active sentences                    the subjects              make /do the actions:

in the passive sentences          the objects                make / do the actions :

NOTE

We use by + agent to show who or what carries out the action.
We use with + instrument/ material/ ingridient to say what the agent used.

The door was open by the gurglar with a knife.

Practice
You should find the passive forms in this text .

Britain today took a dramatic step towards leaving the European Union after

 David Cameron was humiliated in his bid to block 'arch federalist' 
Jean-Claude Juncker getting Brussels' most powerful post.

German Chancellot Angela Merkelsaid: 'It was made clear yet again that the idea 
of an ever-closer union, as it is stated in the treaties, does not mean that there is
 equal speedamong the member countries but there can be different speeds that
 member countries  adopt to come to ever-closer union.

'We also stated that the concerns the UK has will be addressed also as regards 
the European developments.'

Britain today took a dramatic step towards leaving the European Union after David Cameron was humiliated in his bid to block 'arch federalist' Jean-Claude Juncker
 getting Brussels' most powerful post.

German Chancellot Angela Merkel said: 'It was made clear yet again that the 
idea of an ever-closer union, as it is stated in the treaties, does not mean that
 there is equal speed among the member countries but there can be different speeds 
that member countries adopt to come to ever-closer union.

'We also stated that the concerns the UK has will be addressed also as regards
 the European developments.'