THE PASSIVE

 Form of the passive: be + past participle

(V3)
S V O
ACTIVE: (a) The student used the computer  In the passive, the object of an active verb
becomes the subject of the passive verb: “the
S V computer” in (a) becomes the subject of the
PASSIVE: (b) The computer was used by the student passive verb in (b).
 (a) and (b) have the same meaning.

 Only transitive verbs (verbs that are

followed by an object) can be used in the
passive.
ACTIVE: (a) An accident happened yesterday.  We can’t use intransitive verbs (verbs that
are not followed by an object) in the passive
PASSIVE: (b) no change form.
 Common intransitive verbs are: happen,
sleep, come, seem, agree, cry, exist, go, live,
occur, rain, rise, stay, walk

TENSES IN PASSIVE FORM

TENSES ACTIVE PASSIVE

Present simple The student uses the computer The computer is used by the student
Present continuous/progressive The student is using the computer The computer is being used by the student
Present perfect The student has used the computer The computer has been used by the student
Past simple The student used the computer The computer was used by the student
Past continuous/progressive The student was using the computer The computer was being used by the student
Past perfect The student had used the computer The computer had been used by the student
Future simple The student will use the computer The computer will be used by the student
The student is going to use the computer The computer is going to be used by the student
Modals The student can use the computer The computer can be used by the student
The student may use the computer The computer may be used by the student

Note:

 Usually the passive is used without a “by phrase”. The passive is most frequently used when it is not known or
not important to know exactly who performs an action because generally the readers/audiences have known who
forms it/no need to know it. See the examples in (a), (b), and (c).

 The “by phrase” is included only if it is important to know who performs an action because of certain reasons.
We can see the examples in (d) and (e).

 Examples:
a) Rice is grown in Thailand.  Everybody knows that “farmer” grows rice
b) Fish was caught in the sea.  Everybody knows that “fishermen” catch fish
c) This scoter has been made in Italy.  Everybody knows that “engineers” make scooter/motorbike.
d) The World is not Enough was played by Pierce Brossnan.  Pierce Brosnan played (the film) The World
is Not Enough; not other actors!
e) The radio is to being listened by my brother, Jim.  My brother, Jim is listening to the radio; not other
people!
 PASSIVE PRACTICE

A. Change the verbs & make them into passive forms!

1. Tomorrow Mr. Heru, the computer technician (repair) some broken keyboards.
2. John (phone) Albert, his friend last night.
3. We (study) English every Saturday evening.
4. Some students (open) the e-mail from the internet right now.
5. My family (visit) our grandparents in Singapore since we came.

B. Make the sentence into passive and used “by” only if necessary.
1. Ronaldo scored the new winning goal two days ago.
2. Timmy will try Windows 7 in his computer tomorrow
3. Some of the employees of the company have brought their problem to the meeting.
4. Most students of SMA Xaverius 1 are going to join the placement test for senior high school student to
enter Binus.
5. People are using the Microsoft in computers.

C. Change the Passive sentence into the active.

1. Many books have been published to the market.
2. The Great Princess of Seon Deok is watched everyday on TV.
3. The new regulations were decided by the stubborn principal last week.
4. Some assignments are being questioned by some STT MUSI students to their lecturer because they don’t
understand.
5. A year of teaching-learning cyllabus of Biology is going to be set next week on the workshop.

D. CHOOSE THE CORRECT AND APPROPRIATE PASSIVE!

1. A. Language skills are taught in every school in every country.
B. Language skills are taught in every school in every country by language teachers.

2. A. Paper, the main writing material today, was invented by the Chinese.
B. Paper, the main writing material today, was invented.

3. A. This olive oil has been imported from Spain by other countries.
B. This olive oil has been imported from Spain.

4. A. Life in The Mississippi was written many years ago.

B. Life in Mississippi was written many years ago by Mark Twain.

5. A. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony will be performed at Palembang Square Hall.

B. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony will be performed at Palembang Square Hall
by an orchestra group.

6. A. Rice is grown in Indonesia by farmers.

B. Rice is grown in Indonesia

7. A. Rice is grown in Indonesia by my farmers

B. Rice is grown in Indonesia

8. A. The car has been repaired by Rudolph, the mechanic.

B. The car has been repaired.

9. A. The lessons are going to be taught.

B. The lessons are going to be taught by our new teacher.

10. A. The new airplane will be flown next week.

B. The new airplane will be flown by a pilot next week.
PASSIVE EXERCISE!
INSTRUCTION!
All the sentences here use active construction. They are correct grammatically, but in fact most of them must be
in passive construction to convey the information. Change them using the appropriate and correct passive to
compose the good news!
HEADLINES
Tsunami killed 120,000 people
Yesterday when an earthquake near
Sumatra caused a massive ‘tsunami’, it killed
thousands of people. The tsunami affected the
entire coastal area of the Bay of Bengal as the
huge waves destroyed buildings and whole
villages. “We cannot confirm the exact number
of casualties,” said a government official, the
tsunami has injured thousands more”.
The earthquake registered 8,9 on the
Richter scale. By yesterday afternoon, rescue
teams had found 60,000 dead bodies and they
are predicting much higher figures. There are
fears that tsunami will left many others
homeless.
Many countries are going to send aid,
and they are flying rescue teams from Europe in
tomorrow.
News says most of the buildings on the
coast to be in ruins. The tsunami was making
the problems worse because it damaged lots of
hospitals badly.
Tsunamis do not often threaten the area.
The Jakarta Post
HEADLINES
‘We can bring more out alive’
Thousands have died in the earthquake in
Iran, but as a British rescue team goes in,
there is optimism that they can save live.
Many countries such as the UK,
Germany, China, Russia and Japan have
sent rescue teams to the city and they still
hope they will find survivors. As they
arrived, queues of injured people
surrounded the medical and rescue workers.
Difficult travelling conditions had
hampered their journey to the disaster zone.
‘We are still optimistic that we can
bring more out alive,’ said Graham Payne,
the director of the 60-strong British team.
‘If the earthquake traps anyone, there is a
good chance we will find them.’
On the first days, the team used
snake-eye cameras, hi-tech listening
devices and carbon dioxide detectors to
locate survivors.
The Jakarta Post