A nice lesson about the passive voice

1. What happened?
Miss Leung took Brian’s book.
Brian’s book was taken by Miss Leung.
DOER
DOER
(Subject
)
(Object)

2. What happened?
Miss Leung took Brian’s book.
Brian’s book was taken by Miss Leung.
DOER
DOER
(Subject
)
(Object)(Subject
)
Emphasis – more
IMPORTANTRECEIVER

3. What happened?
Miss Leung took Brian’s book.
Brian’s book was taken by Miss Leung.
DOER
(Subject
)
(Object)(Subject
)
DOERRECEIVER

4. What happened?
Miss Leung took Brian’s book.
Brian’s book was taken by Miss Leung.
DOER
(Subject
)
(Subject)
RECEIVER DOER

5. Passive VoicePassive Voice
What are you going to learn?
1. When to Use Passive Voice
2. Structure of Passive Verbs
3. Passive Verbs in Tenses

6. 1. When Do We Use Passive Voice?
A. When the RECEIVER of an action is
the EMPHASIS
B. When it is NOT NECESSARY to
mention the DOER of an action
C. When the DOER of an action is NOT
KNOWN

7. 1.A. When the RECEIVER of the
action is the EMPHASIS
Example:
Look! A mermaid is found by the fishermen!
What is the main
message of the sentence?

8. As the emphasis is on the mermaid,
we start the sentence with ‘A
mermaid’ to attract readers’
attention to the receiver of the
action.

9. Example:
This table is reserved for Hong Kong people.
As the emphasis is on the table, we
start the sentence with ‘This table’ to
attract readers’ attention to the
receiver of the action.

10. 1.B. When it is NOT NECESSARY
to mention the DOER of the action
Example:
I was born in August.
Is it necessary to mention
WHO gave birth to you?
(Who else would it be if not your
mom??!!)

11. As the doer of the action is
understood, we can omit it and
start the sentence with the receiver
of the action, i.e.‘I’.

12. 1.C. When the DOER is NOT
KNOWN
Example:
Miss Leung’s diamond ring was stolen!!
Who stole the ring?

13. We do not know who stole
the diamond ring.
So, the doer is not known. Instead of starting
the sentence with ‘somebody’, i.e.,
‘Somebody stole Miss Leung’s diamond
ring’, we can omit the doer of the action
and start the sentence with the receiver of
the action, i.e., ‘Miss Leung’s diamond
ring’.

14. 2. Structure of Passive Verbs
Syntactic Structure
ACTIVE ----------------------- PASSIVE
e.g. eats ----------------------- is eaten
i.e. verb ----------------------- be + p.p.
Note: “be” is changed according to
 the tense of the sentence
 the number (singular/plural) of the subject of the
sentence.

15. 3. Passive Verbs in Tenses
3.1 Present Tenses
Tenses Active Passive
Present - Simple -eats -is eaten
- Continuous -is eating -is being eaten
- Perfect -has eaten -has been eaten

16. 3.2 Past Tenses
Now, try to complete the following table:
Tenses Active Passive
Past - Simple -ate
- Continuous -was eating
- Perfect -had eaten

17. ANSWERS
Tenses Active Passive
Past - Simple -ate -was eaten
- Continuous -was eating -was being eaten
- Perfect -had eaten -had been
eaten

18. 3.3 Future Tenses
Please complete the following table:
Tense Active Passive
Future - Simple -will eat

19. ANSWERS
Tense Active Passive
Future - Simple -will eat -will be eaten

20. Practice
 Now, rewrite the sentences below by using
passive voice.
1. The janitor cleans our classroom every
day.
2. Japan exported millions of cars last year.
3. Mr. Chan will feed his dog on canned food.

21. ANSWERS
1. Our classroom is cleaned (by the
janitor) every day.
2. Millions of cars were exported from
Japan last year.
3. Mr. Chan’s dog will be fed on canned
food.

22. Activity
What is Different?

23. Players
Each group chooses 1 member as the
player.
All players come to the front of the room
and look carefully around the room.
Now, would the players leave the room and
stay outside for a moment?

24. Action!
Each group takes turn to make a change to
objects in the room.
e.g. clean the blackboard,
close the window….

25. Welcome Back!
Now, let’s invite the players to come back
and try to find out what have been
changed.

26. What is different?
Dear players,
8 changes have been made to objects in
the room.
Check what have been changed.
Report to the class in complete passive
voice sentences.
e.g. The door has been closed.
1 mark for each correct observation.

27. Time Limit: 8 mins

28. Congratulations!!
You HAVE BEEN TAUGHT:
when to use passive voice
how to form passive verbs
Give yourselves a BIG BIG
HAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Passive or ACTIVE??????)