PASSIVE VOICE

Passive Voice

The passive VS the active voice:

The Active Voice	The Passive Voice
She speaks English.	English is spoken by him.

Use of the passive voice:

1.      Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known. However, who or what is performing the action.

Example: "A letter was written."
The focus, here, is on the fact that a letter was written. We don't know, however, who wrote it.

2.      Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows:

Example: A glass was broken.
The focus, here, is on the fact that a glass was broken, but we don't blame anyone. Compare this to: "You broke the glass."

Passive Voice

(BE + V3)

How to change the active sentence to passive sentence

1.      Put the object of active sentence in the first sentence of passive.

2.      Add "BE" based on the structure.

3.      Change the verb into past participle (V3).

4.      Add "by" just before the object of passive sentence (if needed).

Examples

1.      Active sentence: (Simple present tense)   2.   Active sentence: (Simple past tense)

He speaks Javanese.                                     My mother made a cake.

Passive sentence:                                          Passive sentence:

Javanese is spoken by him.                           A cake was made by my mother.