Passive Voice

A.      The office is cleaned everyday

The office was cleaned everyday

Compare active and passive:

Somebody cleans the office everyday                   [active]

The office is cleaned everyday                                  [passive]

Somebody cleaned the office everyday                                [active]

The office was cleaned yesterday                            [passive]

B.      The passive is:

Present simple

Past simple

Am/is/are/wa/were [not] + cleaned, invented, injured, done, taken, built, etc.

The past participle of regular verbs is –ed [cleaned/damaged, etc].

For a list f irregular past participles [done/built/taken, etc]

·         Butter is made of milk.

·         Oranges are imported into Britain.

·         How often are these rooms cleaned?

·         This house was built 100 years ago.

·         These houses were built 100 years ago.

·         When was the telephone invented?

·         We weren’t invited to the party last week.

·         Was anybody injured in the accident? Yes, two people were taken to hospital.

C.      Was/were born

·         I was born in London in 1962 [not I’m born]

·         Where were you born?

D.      Passive + by …

·         We were woken up by a loud noise. (= the noise woke us up)

·         The telephone was invented by Alexander Bell in 1876.

·         My brother was bitten by a dog last week.