UNIT 3

Active and passive forms

Formamos la voz pasiva con be + participio pasado. Utilizamos be en el mismo tiempo verbal de la frase activa.

(active) Consumers buy many products online.

(passive) Many products are bought online by consumers.

Form

La pasiva del presente simple se forma de la siguiente manera:

Affirmative/ Negative / Question

I am (m)
You/ We/ They are (re) past participle
He/ She/ It is (s)
I am not (m not)
You/ We/ They are not (arent) past participle
He/ She/ It is not (isnt)
Am I
Are You/ we/ they past participle ?
Is He/ she/ it

Cuando formamos la pasiva en otros tiempos verbales, usamos be en el mismo tiempo en el que est el verbo principal
en la frase activa:

Active Passive
Present continous
is/ are eating is being eaten
Present perfect
has/ have eaten has/ have been eaten
Past simple
ate was/ were eaten
Past perfect simple
had eaten had bee eaten
Will
will eat will be eaten
Going to
is/ are going to is/ are going to be eaten
Modal verbs
Can/ must/ should eat Can/ must/ should be eaten

Spelling

Algunos verbos irregulares tienen participios pasados diferentes. (Ver 3 columna de verbos irregulares)

Algunos verbos no tienen forma de pasiva. Entre estos se incluyen los verbos intransitivos (que no tienen objeto)
como: die (=morir), sleep (= dormir) y swim (=nadar).
Uso

Utilizamos la pasiva para dar enfatizar la accin (el verbo) en vez de quin o qu (el agente) realiza la accin.
Compara:

I bought a new phone last week. (Active es importante decir quin lo compr)
Thousands of new phones are bought every day. (Passive no es importante decir quin los compra)

The passive with by

En las oraciones activas, el sujeto del verbo tambin es el agente (la persona que realiza la accin). Cuando
cambiamos una oracin activa a pasiva, el objeto de la oracin active se convierte en el sujeto de la pasiva. Aadimos
by + agente al final de la oracin pasiva para mostrar quin est realizando la accin.

Active passive
Dior designed this coat.
Sujeto (agente) Verbo (activa) objeto

This coat was designed by Dior.

sujeto Verbo (pasiva) by+ agente

Podemos omitir by + agente de una oracin pasiva:

Cuando el agente es desconocido.

My bag has been taken. (No s quin me la cogi)

Cuando el agente es muy obvio o no es importante.

The thief was arrested. (el agente- the police es obvio)

Si no queremos nombrar al agente

The mirror was broken while we were moving it. (No queremos decir quin lo rompi)

No siempre es posible omitir by + agente. Algunas oraciones necesitan un agente porque aporta informacin
importante.

The book was written by Charles Dickens.

Passive with two objects

Cuando una oracin activa tiene dos objetos, hay dos posibles oraciones pasivas. Para re-escribir este tipo de oraciones
en pasiva, uno de los objetos se convierte en sujeto y el otro se mantiene como objeto. El objeto que ha cambiado a
sujeto es enfatizado.

Subject Verb Object 1 Object 2

Active: They gave Sophia the present.
Passive: The present was given to Sophia.
Passive: Sophia was given the present.
Impersonal and infinitive forms

Los reportajes de noticias a menudo usan la siguiente construccin con los verbos believe (= creer), think (= pensar),
rumour (= rumorearse) y report (=informar sobre, comunicar).

It + (be) + past participle +that

They believe that the thief got away.

It is believed that the thief got away.
They think that sales are going up.
It is thought that sales are going up.
They spread a rumour that the shop will close.
It is rumoured that the shop will close.
They reported that the shoplifters have been arrested.
It is reported that the shoplifters have been arrested.

Los infinitivos pasivos en presente y en perfecto tambin son posibles.

The thief is believed to have got away.

Sales are thought to be going up.
The shop is rumoured to be closing.
Shoplifters are reported to have been arrested.

The causative

Usamos have o get + objeto + participio pasado cuando una persona hace una tarea por nosotros.

I have/ get my grocery shopping delivered.

Usamos have + objeto + participio pasado cuando una persona nos hace algo malo a nosotros.

Ive had my Facebook account hacked.