Active and Passive Voice

Vocabulary flashcards covering the definitions, structures, tenses, and usage rules for active and passive voice.

Passive Voice

A grammatical construction made by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense is needed and adding the past participle.

Past Participle (Regular Verbs)

The verb form created by adding 'ed' to the infinitive for regular verbs (e.g., 'play' becomes 'played').

Verbs with Two Objects

Verbs such as give, ask, offer, teach, tell, lend, promise, sell, and throw that can form two different active sentences and two corresponding passive sentences.

Passive Gerund

A gerund form constructed in the passive voice, such as 'being cuddled' in the sentence 'The child loves being cuddled.'

Passive Infinitive

An infinitive form constructed in the passive voice, such as 'to be promoted' in the sentence 'She would like to be promoted.'

Passive in Subordinate Clauses

A passive construction within a subordinate clause that contains a subject and a conjugated verb (e.g., 'I thought that John had been kissed by Mary').

Changing Sentence Focus

A primary use of the passive voice to shift interest toward the object receiving the action rather than the performer (e.g., 'The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci').

Obvious Agent

A situation where the performer of the passive action is self-evident and omitted, such as the police in 'He was arrested.'

Unknown Agent

A reason for using the passive voice when who or what caused the action is not known (e.g., 'My bike has been stolen').

Unimportant Agent

A reason for using the passive voice when the entity performing the action is irrelevant to the context (e.g., 'The road is being repaired').

People in General Agent

A usage of the passive voice when the action applies universally or to generic people (e.g., 'The form can be obtained from the post office').

Present Simple Passive

The passive form constructed as 'is/are' + past participle (e.g., active 'I make a cake' becomes passive 'A cake is made').

Present Continuous Passive

The passive form constructed as 'is/are being' + past participle (e.g., active 'I am making a cake' becomes passive 'A cake is being made').

Past Simple Passive

The passive form constructed as 'was/were' + past participle (e.g., active 'I made a cake' becomes passive 'A cake was made').

Past Continuous Passive

The passive form constructed as 'was/were being' + past participle (e.g., active 'I was making a cake' becomes passive 'A cake was being made').

Present Perfect Passive

The passive form constructed as 'has/have been' + past participle (e.g., active 'I have made a cake' becomes passive 'A cake has been made').

Past Perfect Passive

The passive form constructed as 'had been' + past participle (e.g., active 'I had made a cake' becomes passive 'A cake had been made').

Future Simple Passive

The passive form constructed as 'will be' + past participle (e.g., active 'I will make a cake' becomes passive 'A cake will be made').

Future Perfect Passive

The passive form constructed as 'will have been' + past participle (e.g., active 'I will have made a cake' becomes passive 'A cake will have been made').