passive

The passive: form and use

• In an active sentence, the subject is the ‘doer* who performs the action of the verb.
In a passive sentence, the object of the active verb becomes the subject. Compare:

subject action object

Active A thief stole my bag.
Passive My bag was stolen.

• We use the passive:

- when the doer is not known or not important: My wallet has been stolen! (I do not
know who stole my wallet.) The castle was built in 1150. (It is not important who
built the castle.)
- when the doer is obvious or ‘people in general’: The thief was arrested. (It is the
job of the police to arrest people.) Cars are made in many countries.
• We form the passive with an appropriate form of be + past participle:

Present simple Champagne is made in France.

Past simple The dog was found safe and well.
Present perfect Your room has been painted.
will A new road will be built next year.

►► See Appendix 11: Irregular verbs, pages 172-173.

• To form negative sentences, we put not after be: My bag wasn't stolen.
• To make questions, we put be before the subject: Was my bag stolen?

P R A C T I C E

6 6 a Write sentences. Use the passive.

0 kimonos / wear / in japan
1 the new bridge / finish / next year ...............................................
2 the new drug / not test / yet ...............................................
3 spaghetti / make / from wheat ...............................................
4 paper / invent / in China ...............................................
5 500 student flats / build / last year ...............................................
6 the winner / announce / tomorrow ...............................................
7 the invitations / already / send ...............................................
8 pineapples / grow / in hot countries ...............................................
Grammar: the passive

6 6 b Complete the sentences. Use the passive form of the verbs in brackets.
0 I got this jacket in a charity shop. It . W?.™..... (never / wear)
1 ................the house next door....................... yet? (sell)
2 Our plane left sixteen hours late, but w e ...................................anything to eat.
(not give)
3 ................these grapes........................locally? They’re delicious, (grow)
4 The missing boy...................................yet. They’re still looking for him. (not find)
5 W hen................the Internet....................... ? (create)
6 The results.................................. to us next week, (send)

6 6 c Complete the article. Use the passive form of the verbs in brackets.

The first modern OLYMPIC Games (0) .................................(hold) in Athens in 1896.

Fourteen countries (1) .................................(invite) to take part. Nowadays, over
200 countries send athletes to the Games and in Athens in 2004 over 300 gold
medals (2) .................................(award) in 28 different sports. Both the Winter
and Summer Olympics (3) ....................... ..........(hold) every four years.The 2012
Games (4) .................................(stage) in London.The new Olympic stadium
(5) .................................(already / start) and the organisers say that it
(6) ......... ...................... (finish) a year before the Games.

6 6 d Re-write the sentences. Use the passive.

0 For a long time, they recorded music on vinyl records.
Fora longtime, /77f/s/c
1 Nowadays, they release albums on CDs.
Nowadays, album s..................................................................................................
2 They developed the CD in the 1980s.
The CD......................................................................................................................
3 People use CDs to store music or computer software.
CD s...........................................................................................................................
4 They make CDs from plastic and aluminium.
CD s...........................................................................................................................
5 They have sold billions of CDs in the last twenty years.
Billions of CDs..........................................................................................................
6 Maybe one day people will download all music from the Internet.
Maybe one day all m usic........................................................................................
7 But probably people will buy CDs for a few years to come.
But probably CDs.....................................................................................................