The Passive Voice

When talking about the sofa, Ray says, “It is imported from Italy.”

Here Ray uses the passive voice.

It does, but it’s very expensive.

It is imported from Italy.

This sofa looks good.

We usually use an active verb form in a sentence when the subject does something. e.g. We clean our classroom every day.

Sometimes we use the passive verb form in a sentence when something happens to the subject. E.g. Our classroom is cleaned every day.

When do we use the passive voice?1. We don’t know who/ what the doer is

E.g. Mr Chan’s taxi was damaged. We don’t know who damaged the taxi.

2. The doer is obvious E.g. Last year, more than a thousand taxi drivers were

fined. Who is the doer in this case? It is obvious that the doer is the Government.

3. The doer is not important E.g. A lot of surveys were done in the 1990’s.

It doesn't matter who did the surveys.

In passive sentence, we use the different tenses of be (am/ is/ are/ was/ were) + the past participle of the verb.

Tense Structure Example

Present simple

Am/ are/ is

+ past participle

I > am

He/ she/ it > is

You/ we/ they> are

e.g. I am employed by the ABC Company.

e.g. Our classroom is cleaned every day.

e.g. They are employed by the ABC Company.

e.g. We are employed by the ABC Company.

Past simple Was/ were

+ past participle

I/ he/ she/ it > was

You/ we/ they > were

e.g. I was employed by the ABC Company.

e.g. You were employed by the ABC

Read the news report below and find out examples of the past passive.

$6m Robbery

FIVE people were tied up for almost seven hours at a Kwun Tong company by a gang of eight who escaped with $6 million… (SCMP)

Bar Attack on Captain

POLICE are investigating a case in which a British ship captain was attacked by four men in a bar yesterday. (SCMP)

Home Raided

CASH and valuables worth more than $1.2 million were stolen from a Tsim Sha Tsui flat yesterday. The raid was found at about 2:30pm …(SCMP)

Why passive structures are used in the news reports

$6m Robbery

FIVE people were tied up for almost seven hours at a Kwun Tong company by a gang of eight who escaped with $6 million. (SCMP)

In this case, the doer is obvious. It is obvious that that the doers are the robbers.

Bar Attack on Captain

POLICE are investigating a case in which a British ship captain was attacked by four men in a bar yesterday. (SCMP)

In this case, the doer is not important .

Home Raided

CASH and valuables worth more than $1.2 million were stolen from a Tsim Sha Tsui flat yesterday. The raid was found at about 2:30pm …(SCMP)

In this sentence, the doer is obvious. It is obvious that the doer is the thief.

In this sentence, the doer is not important. It doesn’t matter who found the raid.

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