The sentence

The passive and the causative
A. General information about form
Basic forms of the passive
1. In the active voice, the subject of the verb is the person or thing that does the action:
John burnt the dinner last night.
In the passive voice, the action is done to the subject: The dinner was burnt last night.
2. We form the passive with a suitable form of be + past participle. Only verbs which take an
object (transitive verbs) can go into the passive:
The dinner was burnt. (But not *The plane was arrived.*)
3. Basic tense forms are a tense of be + past participle:
Present: he writes → it is written
Past: he wrote → it was written
Present/past perfect: he has/had written → it has/had been written
4. Basic modal forms are: modal + be/have been + past participle:
will: he will write → it will be written
may: he may write → it may be written
may have: he may have written → it may have been written, etc.
5. Infinitive: to be/to have been + past participle:
he is/was to write → it is to be written/it was to have written
The passive with progressive forms: ‘She is being interviewed’
Only the present and past progressive are common in the passive. We form the passive
with the progressive form of be (am/is/are/was/were being) + a past participle:
Present progressive: They are interviewing her now. → She is being interviewed now.
Past progressive: They were interviewing her here. → She was being interviewed
here.
B. Uses of the passive
Uses of the passive
1. The passive is not just a different form of the active. It has its own uses and is very
common in English. It would be hard to think of the active forms of sentences like:
Rome wasn’t built in a day. The origin of the universe will never be explained.
2. We use the passive mainly in three ways:
- when we don’t want to take responsibility for something:
The matter will be dealt with soon. (We don’t know or want to say who’ll deal with it.)
- when we want to focus on a happening, not who or what did it:
Our roof was damaged in last night’s storm. (We’re concerned about the roof.)
- when we want to avoid ‘vague subjects’ like one, someone, they, etc.:
The form has to be signed. (Not *Someone/One has to sign the form.*)
English spoken. (Not *One speaks English*) Shoes repaired. (Not *One repairs shoes*)
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