Speakout Advanced p 60. Passive Voice. Extra Grammar

The passive forms of a verb are created by combining a form of the "to be verb" with the past participle of the main verb. Other helping verbs are also sometimes present: "The measure could have been killed in committee." The passive can be used, also, in various tenses. Let's take a look at the passive forms of "design."

Tense	Subject	Auxiliary		Past Participle
		Singular	Plural
Present	The car/cars	is	are	designed.
Present perfect	The car/cars	has been	have been	designed.
Past	The car/cars	was	were	designed.
Past perfect	The car/cars	had been	had been	designed.
Future	The car/cars	will be	will be	designed.
Future perfect	The car/cars	will have been	will have been	designed.
Present progressive	The car/cars	is being	are being	designed.
Past progressive	The car/cars	was being	were being	designed.

A sentence in the passive voice will not always include an agent of the action. For instance if a gorilla crushes a tin can, we could say "The tin can was crushed by the gorilla." But a perfectly good sentence would leave out the gorilla: "The tin can was crushed." Also, when an active sentence with an indirect object is rewritten in the passive, the indirect object can take on the role of subject in the passive sentence:

Active	Professor Villa gave Jorge an A.
Passive	An A was given to Jorge by Professor Villa.
Passive	Jorge was given an A.

Only transitive verbs (those that take objects) can be transformed into passive constructions. Furthermore, active sentences containing certain verbs cannot be transformed into passive structures. To have is the most important of these verbs. We can say "He has a new car," but we cannot say "A new car is had by him." We can say "Josefina lacked finesse," but we cannot say "Finesse was lacked." Here is a brief list of such verbs*:

resemble	look like	equal	agree with
mean	contain	hold	comprise
lack	suit	fit	become

The Passive

When we don’t know who does/did something

            The car was stolen at approximately 1.30 am.

When it’s obvious who does/did something.

   Having been introduced in 1998, the Road Traffic Act regulates all vehicle use on UK roads.

When it’s not important who does/did something

     The XL500 was designed with young families in mind, so there’s plenty of room in the boot.

To emphasise new information (which appears at the end of the sentence)

            This type of submarine was developed during the Second World War by the Americans.

To avoid starting clauses with long expressions

         We were surprised by the number of people trying to leave the city for the long weekend. (More natural than The number of people trying to leave the city for the long weekend surprised us.)

To produce a formal style

All passengers are required to present their ticket to the inspector.

Impersonal passive

Form	Common verbs	Example
Noun + verb in passive form + infinitive/ perfect infinitive	agree, assume, believe, claim, consider, estimate, expect, feel, find, guarantee, know, mean, presume, regard, report, say, suppose, think, understand	Tourism is expected to become a major part of the country’s economy.
There + verb in passive form + infinitive / perfect infinitive		There are reported to have been a record number of accidents on the roads this year.
It + verb in passive form + that clause	accept, agree, argue, assume, believe, calculate, claim, consider, estimate, expect, feel, know, presume, report, say, suggest, suppose, think, understand	It is thought that the new railway will provide employment opportunities for local people.

Causative: get/have sth done

Actions we arrange for other people to do for us

            Did you finally get your bike fixed?

Things we experience (usually negative and not intended.

            I heard that Suzie had her motorbike stolen.

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