DLS Language Series

Fundamentals
Of English Grammar Part 2
The Passive Voice

By DjRay
DLanguage STUDIO
Langkawi

Video Lessons available at

www.dlanguagestudio.com
 Fundamentals of English (Part2, pg1)
Passive Voice
1.1 Basic Structure of a passive sentence :

• When we speak or write, each sentence should be based on the following structure

Matching
Subject verb Perfect Verb Object
Eg : It is found in Langkawi

• SUBJECT must always match with the VERB (ie Singular Subject with Singular Verb or Plural Subject with
Plural Verb)
• VERB must always match with Time, which determines PRESENT, PAST or
FUTURE Actions

1.2 What is SUBJECT ?

• Subject is either a Noun or Pronoun

• Subject Noun - Singular Alex, My brother, Mr John
• Subject Pronoun - Singular He, She, It
• Subject Pronoun - Plural They, You, We, I
 Fundamentals of English (Part2, pg2)
Passive Voice
1.3 What is Object ?
• Object consists of nouns, object pronouns (eg him), verb infinitives (eg to see), adjectives (eg
small), adverbs (eg quickly), time (eg yesterday) etc.. It is not always important to determine
Singular or Plural noun in Object area, except for sentences using There is, There are etc..
1.4 What is Perfect VERB ?
• There are 3 types of Verbs in English, ie Simple Verbs, Continuous Verb and Perfect Verb
• Study the 3 verbs below
• Note : Be sure to differentiate between Simple Past Verbs and Perfect Verbs. (Some of them
have the same spelling, but only perfect verbs are used in Passive Voice

Continuous Verb Simple Verb Perfect Verb

Plural Singular Past
taking take takes took taken
eating eat eats ate eaten
writing write writes wrote written
breaking break breaks broke broken
buying buy buys bought bought
opening open opens opened opened
 Construct a Sentence
Present Actions – Passive Voice
am
Subject is Perfect Verb Object It is written
are

am
Subject is being Perfect Verb Object It is being written
are

Continuous Verb Simple Verb Perfect Verb

Plural Singular Past
writing write writes wrote written
breaking break breaks broke broken
buying buy buys bought bought
opening open opens opened opened
 Construct a Question
Present Actions – Passive Voice
am
W is Subject Perfect Verb Object Is it written?
are

am
W is Subject being Perfect Verb Object Is it being written?
are

W = What, Where, Why, Who, When, How, How many, which, whose etc..
 Construct a Sentence
Past Actions – Passive Voice

was
Subject Perfect Verb Object It was written
were

was
Subject being Perfect Verb Object It was being written
were

has
Subject been Perfect Verb Object It has been written
have
 Construct a Question
Past Actions – Passive Voice

was
W were
Subject Perfect Verb Object Was it written?

was
W were
Subject being Perfect Verb Object Was it being written?

has
W have
Subject been Perfect Verb Object Has it been written?

W = What, Where, Why, Who, When, How, How many, which, whose etc..
 Construct a Sentence
Future Actions – Passive Voice
am
Subject is going Perfect Verb Object It is going to be
are to be written

*Future
Subject be Perfect Verb Object It will be written
verb

*Future Verb = will, can, must, may, might, should, could, etc…
 Construct a Sentence
Future Actions – Passive Voice
am
going Perfect Verb Object Is it going to be
W is Subject written?
are to be

*Future
W verb
Subject be Perfect Verb Object Will it be written?

*Future Verb = will, can, must, may, might, should, could, etc…

W = What, Where, Why, Who, When, How, How many, which, whose etc..
DLS Language Series

Glossary
Terms
Useful for Malay speakers

By DjRay
DLanguage STUDIO
Langkawi
www.dlanguagestudio.com
 About Subject

Subject is a noun which starts a sentence. A noun becomes a subject

when we have to determine whether it is singular or plural

Subject adalah katanama yang memulakan ayat. Katanama menjadi

subject apabila kita perlu mengetahui samada ia singular atau plural

Singularity and Plurality are shown below :

Singular Plural
office : pejabat offices : pejabat-pejabat
room : bilik rooms : bilik-bilik
friend : kawan friends : kawan-kawan
guest : tetamu guests : tetamu-tetamu
 About Articles
The, This, That, These, Those

• The position of articles in Bahasa Malaysia is opposite to English

• Kedudukan artikel di dalam B. Malaysia dan English adalah bertentangan

• Usually, ‘the’ in the last noun is naturally used

• Biasanya, ‘the’ digunakan pada noun yang terakhir sekiranya tiada artikel lain
yang digunakan

Singular Noun Plural Noun

• the office pejabat itu the offices pejabat-pejabat itu

• the room bilik itu the rooms bilik-bilik itu
• this guest tetamu ini these guests tetamu-tetamu ini
• that guest tetamu itu those guests tetamu-tetamu itu
 Adverbs of Quantity
Penjodoh Bilangan
The position of adverbs of quantity in Bahasa Malaysia is similar to English
Kedudukan kuantiti di dalam B.Malaysian adalah sama dengan English

Singular Noun Plural Noun

• a guest seorang tetamu many guests ramai tetamu

• one guest satu tetamu a few guests beberapa tetamu
• a litte sugar sedikit gula a lot of people ramai orang
• a satu or se_____ many banyak (for non-human)
• a child seorang budak many ramai (for human)
• a little sedikit a lot of banyak/ramai
• a car sebuah kereta plenty banyak/ramai
• a bottle of sebotol several beberapa
• an egg sebiji telur
• a pencil sebatang pensil
• a knife sebilah pisau
• a packet sepaket
• a cup of coffee secawan kopi
 Personal Pronoun
Gantinama diri
Personal Pronouns (subject) Personal Pronouns (object)

I Saya me saya
You Awak you awak
He Dia him dia / nya
She Dia her dia / nya
We Kita / kami us kita / kami
They Mereka them mereka
It Ia it ia / nya
 Possessive Pronouns
Gantinama kepunyaan
Singular Possession Plural Possession

my car kereta saya my cars kereta-kereta saya

your house rumah awak your houses rumah-rumah awak
his house rumahnya / dia his houses rumah-rumahnya / dia
her house rumahnya / dia her houses rumah-rumahnya / dia
our house rumah kita our houses rumah-rumah kita
their house rumah mereka their houses rumah-rumah mereka
its kitten anaknya its kittens anak-anaknya

The position of possessive pronoun

in English is opposite to Malay
Kedudukan gantinama kepunyaan
English adalah bertentangan
dengan B.Malaysia
 Preposition
Kata arah
at di at pada (used to indicate time)
on di atas to ke
in di dalam with dengan
under di bawah near dekat
beside di sebelah nearby dekat dengan
here di sini from dari
there di sana far jauh
anddan

Note : In English, we use verb to be such as ‘is, am, are.. etc’ to explain a
location of a noun. In Bahasa Malaysia, we can omit ‘to be’ for this purpose,
or use ‘berada’ instead

Di dalam English, penggunaan ‘verb to be : is, are, am..’ adalah perlu

apabila subject bertemu dengan kata arah

Eg : Saya di sini or Saya berada di sini I am here

 Days of the week
Days of the week Examples:

Monday Hari Isnin What day is today?

Tuesday Hari Selasa Hari ini hari apa?
Wednesday Hari Rabu
Thursday Hari Khamis Today is Monday
Friday Hari Jumaat Hari ini Hari Isnin / Hari ini Isnin
Saturday Hari Sabtu
Sunday Hari Ahad
 Month of the Year
January Januari
FebruaryFebruari
March Mac
April April
May Mei Month = Bulan
June Jun In English we say : What month is it?
July Julai In BM, it is asked this way :
August Ogos What month is this month?
September September Bulan ini bulan apa?
October Oktober This month is June
November November Bulan ini Bulan June
December Disember
Note : ‘is’ is not translated
 Present & Past
Sekarang dan Selepas
Present Action Past Action

Now sekarang Just now tadi

Everyday setiap hari / hari-hari Yesterdaysemalam
Always selalu This morning pagi tadi
Usually biasanya Last Night malam tadi
Sometimes kadang-kadang Last weekminggu lepas
Seldom jarang-jarang This afternoon tengahari tadi
Once in a while sesekali Last time dahulu
Often kerap/selalu Last month bulan lepas
 Future
Belum berlaku / Akan datang
Future Action
Tomorrow esok
Next week minggu hadapan
Next month bulan hadapan
Next time lain kali
Later sebentar lagi

Note
Morning is used from 12.00am – 11.59am
Afternoon is used from 12.00noon – 6.00pm
Evening is used from 6.01pm – 11.59pm
 Interrogatives
Kata tanya
What? Apa? What car? Kereta apa?
Where? Di mana? Which car? Kereta mana?
Why? Kenapa?Whose car? Kereta siapa?
When? Bila? How many? Berapa?
Who? Siapa? How much? Berapa?
How? Bagaimana? How many cars? Berapa buah kereta?
 How to indicate ‘The Hours’
Cara mengguna Masa
• What time is it now?
• It is 1 o’clock (pm)
• It is 7.30 in the morning
• It is 3.10 in the afternoon
• It is 8.12 in the evening
• It is 8.15 in the evening
Sekarang pukul berapa? / Sekarang
sudah pukul berapa?
Pukul satu tengahari
Pukul tujuh tiga puluh minit pagi /
Pukul tujuh setengah pagi
Pukul tiga sepuluh minit petang
(considered evening)
Pukul lapan dua belas minit malam
( considered night)
Pukul lapan lima belas minit malam /
Pukul lapan suku malam
 Conjunction
Kata hubung
Beginning or middle of a sentence usually middle of sentence

and dan whereas di mana

and then selepas itu which yang
when semasa who yang
while semasa that yang
mean while sementara itu
even though walaupun
but tetapi / tapi
before sebelum
after selepas
before that sebelum itu
after that selepas itu
if sekiranya / kalau
how bagaimana
what apa yang
where dimana
when bila (indicating time)
when apabila (not indicating time)

Note :
• Most conjunctions are used to join sentences.
• Some can be used at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence, but some can only be
used in the middle.
 End
English Fundamentals Part 2
The Passive Voice
Also available :
DLS English Fundamentals Part 1
DLS English Fundamentals Part 3
DLS English Exercises
DLS Malay Fundamentals
DLS Malay Exercises

Video Lessons are available at

www.dlanguagestudio.com