Writing for this Unit:

A book or film review
A short message or e-mail

Grammar for this Unit:

The Passive Voice

The Passive Voice   (General Information)

In English, there are two types of sentences. The Active and the Passive.

                            (Active)                                                                                                  (Passive) 

People grow dates in the UAE.

Dates are grown in the UAE by people.

An active sentence means that we see subject (people) before the verb (grow).  We use this when it is important to know who did the action.

We use a passive sentence when the action is more important than the people who did the action. The object (dates) comes before the verb.

Often the person who does the action is not even in the senetnce.    The "by-phrase" is deleted.

Dates are grown in the UAE.

"by people" is deleted.  We know people did it.  Cats don't grow dates, do they?  No, people grow them.  It is not neccessary to say so.  We know it must be people.

 

We can also delete the "by phrase" when we want to hide the person who did the action.

Huda broke the TV during the break.

The TV was broken when we came to class.

Both sentences are true.  If the college director asked about the TV, which answer would you give?

Forming the Passive:

To form the passive voice, the subject (Mariam) changes places with the object (the cake). The verb (ate) is changed to the past participle.

The two diagrams show how this is done.