It is a gramatical construction where the noun or noun phrase that would be the object of an active sentence appears as the subject of a sentence with passive voice.

Example: He stole my book. à My book was stolen by him.

• Structure

Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle

• Use of Passive

- When the actor is unknown.
-When the actor is irrelevant.
-When you want to vague about who is responsible.
-When you are talking about a general truth.

• Examples

Present:

-Cars are assembled in Japan.
-Cats are eaten by my dog.
-English class is given by Alba Marron.
-The militaries are attacked in Irak.
-The homework is done by me.

Past:

-The Eiffel tower was built by Gustave Eiffel.
-The Olympic games were won by USA in London.
-The swimming competition was won by Michael Phelps.
-Mexicali was founded in 1903.
-America was discovered by Columbus in 1492

Future:

-A new house will be bought by my mom.
-Mexico City will be visited by my family in December.
-iPods will be modified by Apple.
-Army will be prepared for WWIII.
-A new heels will be used by me next weekend.

Present perfect:

-The car has been driven by my grandmother.
-The cookies have been made by my sister in law.
-Internet has been developed by humans.
-GTA has been produced by Rockstar Games.
-The psychologist has been visited by Sarah.

 Karen H.

PASSIVE VOICE SENTENCES:

*Present:

1. - This room is cleaned every week.

2. - Jane is not supposed to be home at this time.

3. - The sidewalks in this quarter are not swept up every day.

4. - These kids are given an hour to do the test.

5. - That girl is said to possess supernatural powers

*Past:

1. - Mary's legs were hurt in an accident.

2. - Our dog wasn’t allowed to travel with us.

3. - You weren’t called yesterday.

4. - Harry was given three hours to make a decision.

5. - My neighbors were paid to take care of Ana's dog.

*Future:

1. - Those hospitals won’t be inaugurated until the end of spring.

2. - Those toys will be being produced in China next year.

3. -The room will be cleaned by her tomorrow.

4. -A movie will be watched later by me.

5. - This child will be taught to have better manners.

*Present Perfect:

1. - The whole city has been destroyed by the earthquake.

2. - I can't get in. These doors have been locked!

3. - Those windows haven’t been closed yet.

4. - The hamburger has been eaten by Alexis.

5. - The room has been cleaned by her.

Maria M

I understand that..

Passive voice is a voice that indicates that the subject is the patient or recipient of the action denoted by the verb. We use it so frequently, even when we don’t know that we are using it. So it is important to know the structure of it and when we can use it or avoid it.

It also help us to give more importance to the active object.

EXAMPLES

Present:

o   Cristian paints a house. – A house is painted by Cristian.

o   Daniela sings a song. – A song is sung by Daniela.

o   Karla drives a car. – A car is driven by Karla.

o   Victor eats a donut. – A donut is eaten by Victor.

o   Briseida writes a poem. – A poem is written by Briseida.

Past:

o   Alberto sold a car. – A car was sold by Alberto.

o   Alex sent a message. A message was sent by Alex.

o   Luis bought a shirt. – A shirt was bought by Luis.

o   Denisse taught kids. – Kids was taught by Denisse.

o   Angel took a picture. – A picture was taken by Angel.

Future:

o   My mom will buy cookies. – Cookies will be bought by my mom.

o   The mechanic will fix the car. – The car will be fixed by the mechanic.

o   The students will learn math. – Math will be learned by the students.

o   The monkey will eat bananas. – Bananas will be eaten by the monkeys.

o   The soldier will kill the enemy. – The enemy will be killed by the soldier.

Present Perfect:

o   The pop star has done the concert. – The concert has been done by the pop star.

o   Crocodiles have eaten meat. – Meat have been eaten by crocodiles.

o   Engineers have built robots. – Robots have been built by engineers.

o   Carlos has failed the test. – The test has been failed by Carlos.

o   Diana has worn jeans. – Jeans has been worn by Diana.

Cristhian R. oct 27 2013

Obama’s Speech

After I Heard Obama’s Speech on 50^th Anniversary of Martin Luther King “ I have a dream” I think there is a way to say a discourse to be truly and that the audience understands you and get the idea of what you are saying. For me Obama put his ideas very clear, by his movements, the face he had, his clearly talking, his pauses and voice strength while he was giving the speech. It gave me the idea of what did this historical person.

In my opinion what Martin Luther King did was very caring because he worked in the American democracy where a big discrimination with the color people existed and there were more opportunities for the white people. I can imagine how big was the support he got for being regardless and stood up the voice to say that all raises are equality, we all deserve the same, and we shouldn’t make any kind of discrimination just because the skin color.

I really do think he was a great minister; he had fought for the civil rights and the anonymous millions who stood by King’s side during the fight of the 1960’s, were truly grateful by his actions not only because no one had stood to say it in the past but because he said it loud and clear their rights.

I could see that Martin had the courage to face others and say “come on, we are marching” and also had the strength to speak for all this people, and even if he died, he will always be remembered because what he did had a purpose which was help others to be part of the work, they could get more freedom the white people were receiving, and for that it was worth it. Obama said “Because they marched, America has changed for you and I and the entire world grew strength from that example”. And he is right; they were seeking jobs as well as justice and the presence of economic opportunity to have a better life, not just fame.

For me, another great thing of Luther King was his nonviolent using in all his actions, all the time he was kind of pacific and respectful.

The words King’s said are present now and we can see it watching Obama, and I can say he believed in the march because now he is standing right in front of the United States voice, he is the president, and he is black, so what?

 For me he has been doing changes and making more importantly, caring and hard working than others.

Maria M.

Martin Luther King’s speech

“I have a dream”

This speech is one of numerous famous speeches that have been done and said in the history of the U.S. This one by Martin Luther King is about the time where black people were treated like slaves just because of their skin color. The United States was a nation where dark skin people would get treated like animals, not even like animals, just like they didn’t mean nothing, he fought for the rights that every human being deserves. 

He truly believed that we all are, in fact, equal. In his speech he uses a lot of metaphors to refer to the situation the African American people were living. He talked in front of thousands of people and touched many hearts with words of wisdom. He spoke his dreams and his feelings about having a free nation where his children could have a better life than him. He changed black American history, he promised and made sure that justice was being served, like he said it wasn’t the end of something, it was the beginning of a new era, a more opened mind country. Nowadays, Luther King’s legacy remains; he is remembered by everyone in the African American community. He did a very powerful speech that changed everyone that day, the United States became free.

But still, this country and this world isn’t free of racism, there’s still a lot of people who have a very closed mind and still thinks  that because you have dark skin you are less than them, and that is never going to be true, we all are equal, with dark and white skin is the same, we deserve every human right because we are the same. If Martin Luther King would never have  fought for his rights, maybe there would still be racial problems in that country, even slavery. We owe people like the president Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King that were people that fought for what they wanted for further generations, to have a better world and a better society.

I hope one day people open their mind and think for a few minutes about what happened during those years, and during that speech, that changed a lot of things in the U.S. This proves that words are the most powerful weapon. We have to make a statement about something; we need to speak our mind if we want something done.

Karla G. A.

Grupo: 502

Barack Obama

The speech I chose to write about is a recent one, Obama talks about the situation that Syria is living right now, I’m not so sure why he thinks is his responsibility to take care about this problem, and he wants to have a confrontation with Syria’s government and specially their military army.

He explains the gravity of this problem, more than 1000 people has been killed, and between that number are more than 700 children, innocent boys and girls whose life has taken away. Obama supports the idea of fight this war too, he wants to send his military army to try to protect this country and its people. I don’t know since when this kind of fights are a responsibility to the United States of America, and I honestly doubt if getting into that is going to help.

He also comments all the different weapons that Syria is using to hurt and kill these people, they have developed chemical weapons whose are really powerful and this unfortunately is causing one of the biggest and more serious conflicts in the century.  He stands his ideal of representing a country that will defend and fight for those who need it, he thinks that the message they can send fighting will be so much better than if they don’t do anything about it, he wants to be part of that war, because, quoting him, this has implications beyond Syria, this means that this is just not for that country, he is worried that this conflict could become in something bigger than it already is.

Obama wants to deliver this message to the rest of the world, because he thinks that we all should do something and be part of it, of course he doesn’t expect that every nation agrees with his decision, but he will take this case to the congress, he will support this plan and he will put it on action. All he wants to do is to protect these innocent people, because he believes in his country and he knows, by its background, they can finish wars.

This case has to be debated by the congress, but he hopes that all the members of it realize that this is a responsibility for them and that’s who they are as a country, he made clear that he will not avoid hard decisions, and he wants to invite to the rest of the nations to be part of this and become as one single nation.

Juliana  B.

502

Present tense

·        My car is used by my sister.

·        The telephone is used by my mom.

·        The children are kept by the nanny.

·         The cereal is eaten by me.

·        The discourse is said by the president.

Past tense

·        The cookies were eaten by my dog.

·        The milk was dropped by me.

·        Dinosaurs were killed by a comet.

·        President Kennedy was killed by lee Harvey Oswald.

·        The clock was broken by my aunt.

Future

·        The smartphones will be used like a computer by everyone.

·        My wrist will be broken by the fall.

·        My wallet will be filled by money.

·        Science will be completed by many Scientifics. 

·        The English language will be spoken by me.

Perfect present

·        The money has been used to buy things worldwide.

·        The English language has been spoken worldwide.

·        The breakfast has been done for my mom.

·        Christmas has been known worldwide.

·         The post has been posted on Facebook by the teacher.

   

Jesús A.

Passive voice is when the statement focuses on the action and the subject does not participate actively in the statement

Examples:

1._

Present: The Marriage proposal is accepted by Daniela

Past:  The Marriage proposal was accepted by Daniela

Future: The Marriage proposal will be accepted by Daniela

Present Perfect:  The Marriage proposal has been accepted by Daniela

2.-

Present: A question is answered by Maggie

Past: A question was answered by Maggie

Future: A question will be answered by Maggie

Present Perfect: A question has been answered by Maggie.

3.-

Present: The essay is analyzed by him

Past:  The essay was analyzed by him

Future: The essay will be analyzed by him

Preset Perfect: The essay has been analyzed by him

4.-

Present: A bowl of soup is eaten by Johnny

Past: A bowl of soup was eaten by Johnny

Future:  A bowl of soup will be eaten by Johnny

Preset Perfect:  A bowl of soup has been eaten by Johnny

5.-

Present: The song is listened by the audience

Past: The song was listened by the audience

Future: The song will be listened by the audience

Preset Perfect: The song has been listened by the audience

Mónica De A. 

Examples

Present:

·         He opens the door- The door is opened by him

·         We set the table- The table is set by us

·         She pays a lot of money- A lot of money is paid by her.

·         They wear blue shoes- Blue shoes are worn by them.

·         You don’t write the letter- The letter isn’t written by you.

Past:

·         She sang a song- A song was sung by her

·         Somebody hit me- I was hit by somebody

·         We stopped the bus - The bus was stopped by us

·         A thief stole my car - My car was stolen by a thief

• They didn't let him go - He was not let go by them.

Future:

• Jane will buy a new computer. - A new computer will be bought by Jane
• Her boyfriend will install it. - It will be installed by her boyfriend
• Millions of people will visit the museum. - The museum will be visited by millions of people.
• Our boss will sign the contract. - The contract will be signed by our boss
• You will not do it. - It will not be done by you

Present Perfect:

• Kerrie has paid the bill. - The bill has been paid by Kerrie
• I have eaten a hamburger. - A hamburger has been eaten by me
• We have cycled five miles. - Five miles have been cycled by us
• I have opened the present. - The present has been opened by me
• They have not read the book. - The book has not been read by them

Erick V.

 Se usa la voz pasiva para dar énfasis a lo que fue hecho, en vez de dar énfasis a la persona que hizo algo.

Ejemplo:  

Un mecánico pintará el coche.

A mechanic will paint the car.

(voz activa)

El coche será pintado por un mecánico

The car will be painted by a mechanic

 (voz pasiva)

5 sentences in Present

A letter is written by Kris.

A hot dog is eaten by him.

The tire is changed by Abel.

A movie is going to be watched by us tonight.

The students’ questions are always answered by the teacher.

5 sentences in Past

A letter was written by Kris.   

The novel was read by Mom in one day.

The video was posted on Facebook by Alex.

The baby was carried by the kangaroo in her pouch.

The tire was changed by Abel.

5 sentences in Future

A letter will be written by Kris.

The house will be cleaned by me every Saturday.

The victory will be celebrated by the team tomorrow.

A safety video will be watched by the security every year.

A movie will be watched by us tonight.

5 sentences in Present perfect

A hamburger has been eaten by me.

The present has been opened by me.

A letter has been written by Kris.

The house has been cleaned by me every Saturday.

The baby has been carried by the Kangaroo in her pouch.

Kris A.

Uses

Passive is used when we are interested in the object instead of the subject. It’s also used when we don’t know who or what the subject is, but we know that the action was made by someone or something; as long as there’s an action and an object a passive sentence can be done.

Sentences using Passive Voice can be commonly seen in scientific material

Structure

Object ― Verb to Be + Past Participle ― Subject

To change an Active sentence to a Passive one, the object of the active becomes the subject and the subject of the active becomes the object.

The cat

ate

the mouse

The mouse

was eaten

by the cat

Examples

Present:

1.    Dogs are hated by Peter.

2.    The rules are broken by Ana.

3.    A book is written by Rick.

4.    A song is sung by Robbie.

5.    Computers are bought by people.

Past:

1.    A lot of Jews were killed by Nazis.

2.    Books were bought by mom.

3.    The city was destroyed by a tsunami.

4.    A hamburger was eaten by her.

5.    Great fictional characters were killed without mercy by the author.

Future:

1.    Great buildings will be designed by architects.

2.    The last book of the series will be written by Cassandra.

3.    The future will be changed by new technology.

4.    A movie will be watched by us.

5.    A letter will be written by me.

Present perfect:

1.    A new shirt has been bought by Ross.

2.    Baseball has been practiced by Richard.

3.    A plan has been thought by me.

4.    Computers have been used for almost everything.

5.    Manners have been changed with the pass of time.

    Ricardo R.