The passive voice is not as common as active voice, in our daily conversations we use active voice because we are focused on the person or subject who does the action. But with passive voice the focus is on the object, and not on the person. Let’s analyze some examples:
This wallet is made in Nicaragua.
The book I’m reading is written by Paulo Coelho.
The homework is done.
As we can see in the examples above, the sentences are focused on the object (the wallet, the book, the homework). The subject is not important because is not necessary to know it or it is unknown.
Several mistakes are made every day in this company.
In this clear example we can observe that we are not focused on the subject, it doesn’t matter who makes mistakes, the relevant is that mistakes are made.
Now that we already have an idea about what passive voice is, we can have a look at the grammar structure required to build this formal and polite kind of expressing.
In the same way as we need the past participle to build the perfect tenses, we are also going to need to master the past participle forms to build the passive voice. At simple present passive voice we are going to write the object of the sentence followed by the verb to be, in agreement to the number of the object, a past participle verb and a complement if necessary.
Several mistakes
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are
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made
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every day in this company.
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Object.
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Verb to be.
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past participle verb.
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Complement.
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Here there are some examples of the difference between active and passive voice.
Active:
Homer wrote the Iliad.
A drunk driver caused a crashed.
Her mom takes them to school.
Irresponsible people litter the street every day.
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Passive:
The Iliad was written by Homer.
A crashed was caused by a drunk driver.
They are taken to school by her mom.
The street is littered every day by irresponsible people.
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