Passive Voice

     You may ask: What is Passive Voice used for? And I may answer: Three main points:

• The action is the main focus and comes in first place;
• Who did, performed the action is not important, but if you want to tell, you have to use “by”.
• It sounds impersonal and it’s often used in formal English and to give news (radios, newspapers, internet, Tv and further information about a subject)

     When we talk about Passive Voice, we have to bear in mind its specific structure. It’s composed by:

TO BE (Active Voice Tense) + PAST PARTICPLE (Main Verb)

     Check out these examples:

Active Voice:    Susan               washes                     the car.

                         

                                               

Passive Voice:   The car                 is                  washed                   by Susan.

                           

                         

     The point in Passive Voice is to observe the Active Voice statement and after that build a new statement in Passive Voice, always observing the structure.

     Right below you’re going to find a chart with the main tenses in Active Voice and Passive Voice.

Verb Tense	Active Voice	Passive Voice
Present Simple	She washes the car.	The car is washed by her
Past Simple	She washed the car.	The car was washed by her
Future	She will wash the car.	The car will be washed by her
Conditional	She would wash the car	The car would be washed by her
Going to	She is going to wash the car.	The car is going to washed by her
Present Perfect	She has washed the car.	The car has been washed by her
Past Perfect	She had washed the car.	The car had been washed by her
Present Continuous	She is washing the car.	The car is being washed by her
Past Continuous	She was washing the car.	The car was being washed by her