talkalot intermediate book 1 passive voice

Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Notes on Intermediate Verb Forms
Passive Voice = be + past participle

Time of action:

Past, present, or future.

When do we
need to use it?

When it isn’t important who does the action (who is the subject):
The parcel will be delivered here on Wednesday.
Or when you don’t know who does the action (who is the subject):
Stonehenge was built around five thousand years ago.

How is it formed?

object + be + past participle
Present Simple:
Active:
Paul delivers newspapers every day.

is / are
+ past participle
Passive:
Newspapers are delivered (by Paul) every day.

Past Simple:
Active:

Paul delivered newspapers yesterday.

was / were
+ past participle
Passive:
Newspapers were delivered (by Paul) yesterday.

Present Continuous:
Active:
Paul is delivering newspapers.

is / are
+ being + past participle
Passive:
Newspapers are being delivered (by Paul).

Past Continuous:
Active:
Paul was delivering newspapers.

was / were + being + past participle
Passive:
Newspapers were being delivered (by Paul).

Present Perfect:
Active:
Paul has delivered the newspapers.

have / has + been + past participle
Passive:

The newspapers have been delivered (by Paul).

Present Perfect Continuous:
Active:
Paul has been delivering the
newspapers.

have / has + been + being + past participle
Passive:
The newspapers have been being delivered
(by Paul). [RARE]

Past Perfect:
Active:
Paul had delivered the newspapers.

had + been + past participle
Passive:
The newspapers had been delivered (by Paul).

Past Perfect Continuous:
Active:
Paul had been delivering the
newspapers.

had + been + being + past participle
Passive:
The newspapers had been being delivered
(by Paul). [RARE]

Future with “will”:
Active:
Paul will deliver the newspapers.

will + be + past participle
Passive:
The newspapers will be delivered (by Paul).

Future with “going to”:
Active:
Paul is going to deliver the
newspapers.

be + going to + be + past participle
Passive:
The newspapers are going to be delivered
(by Paul).

16


Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Notes on Intermediate Verb Forms

Contractions /
Questions / Negatives /
Passive / State verbs

Tips:

Future Perfect with “will”:
Active:
Paul will have delivered the
newspapers.

will + have + been + past participle
Passive:
The newspapers will have been delivered
(by Paul).

Future Perfect with “going to”:
Active:
Paul is going to have delivered the
newspapers.

be + going to + have + been
+ past participle
Passive:
The newspapers are going to have been
delivered (by Paul).

Future Perfect Continuous with “will”:
Active:
Paul will have been delivering the
newspapers.

will + have + been + being + past participle
Passive:
The newspapers will have been being delivered

(by Paul). [RARE]

Modal Forms:

will / can, etc.

+ be

Modal Perfect:

will / can, etc.

+ have

+ past participle
+ been

+ past participle

As usual for verb forms.

•
•
•

All English sentences are either active (subject + verb) or
passive (object + be + past participle).
We can add “by…” if we know who does the action and it’s
relevant, or omit it.
Passive forms need transitive verbs, i.e. verbs that can take an

object, such as “open” or “prepare”:
The door was opened [by…]
The lunch was prepared [by…] etc.

•

Intransitive verbs, such as live, wait, and sit down, cannot be
used in passive sentences, e.g.
Active: Bob sat down at the table. 9
Passive: The table was sat down at by Bob. 8
This kind of sentence is needlessly clumsy and unclear.

For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now!

17