The passive voice in English is a fairly simple topic to master if the ways of forming the second participle were well studied before that, especially the table of irregular verbs.
What is the passive voice?
In English, it is used very actively, so understanding its essence is the first thing to start with. Compare two sentences: "He says", "They talk about him." In the second case, it is not the object itself that performs the action, but the action is performed on it. The passive voice is also called the passive voice. “The dress was sewn”, “The offender was taken into custody”, “Coffee will be brought to the room” - everywhere the subject plays a passive, passive role, is the object of someone's actions. In this case, it is not necessary to indicate the source of the action. The offender is taken into custody by someone specific or not - this is not so important. From the construction of the phrase, it is clear that such a source exists, but it is secondary.
Passive voice: grammar
The grammar of the passive voice in English is quite simple, and all forms can be reduced to the followingpattern:
subject + auxiliary verb to be or to have in the appropriate form + second participle
Not all verbs can be used in the passive voice. Compare two verbs: travel (to travel) and write (to write). The second verb can have an object on which it performs an action (to write what? - a letter, a book, an essay), but the first verb cannot have such an object. This object is called direct complement. And verbs that can have such an object are called transitive. As you already understood, only transitive verbs can be used in the passive voice.
The passive voice in English has only eight grammatical forms. Three times - future, present and past, plus three states of time - simple, long and complete. It would seem that there should be nine forms of the passive voice, but the future is not used in the passive voice for a long time.
By studying this topic, you will appreciate how simple and logical the English language is. The passive voice, the table of forms of which is given below, is based on a coherent grammatical scheme. Guided by the table, you can easily make the right sentences. Despite the fact that this topic is considered quite difficult (it is considered at the Intermediate level), it usually does not cause much problems for students.
| Real | Past | Future | |
| Simple | am/is/are +built/called | was/were + built/called | will + be + built/called |
| Long | am/is/are + being + built/called | was/were + being + built/called | - |
| Completed | have/has + been + built/called | had + been + built/called | will + have + been + built/called |
Special attention should be paid to the passive voice in the form of the Future in the Past tense.
How to translate the passive voice
In English, if you forget about Russian and immediately understand the meaning, everything is very simple. Here is an object, here is an action, here is a simple table with three columns and three rows. But in our language, the passive voice is grammatically realized much richer and more complex. Therefore, there can be several ways to translate the same English sentence.
1. With the help of the verb "to be" and the participle. This is especially useful when it comes to past or future tense. As you know, in Russian the verb "to be" in the present tense (the form "is") is used very rarely.
- The houses were built here last year. – The houses were built here last year.
- The parcel will be sent tomorrow. – The package will be shipped tomorrow.
2. Reflexive verbs (with the ending -sya). This method is convenient for the present tense.
Letters are delivered at 7 every day. – Letters are delivered daily at seven o'clock
3. Indefinitely personal construction. The verb in this case is plural. Suitable for any time, but only used when the object performing the action is not specified.
- The houses were built here last year. – The houses were built here last year.
- Letters are delivered at 7 every day. – Letters are delivered daily at seven o'clock.
- My lawn mower has already been repaired. – My lawnmower has already been fixed.
- These offices are being cleaned now. – Offices are being cleaned now.
- The parcel will be sent tomorrow. – The parcel will be sent tomorrow morning.
How to quickly master the passive voice? The English language, for which exercises are abundantly presented in many modern textbooks, is really very easy to learn, if only because you are not limited by anything. At your service is a huge methodological base that allows you to build language acquisition for a person with almost any features and needs. Imagine that you are learning a less popular language like Korean or even Spanish. There will be nothing special to choose from, and in many ways you will have to be independent, which is fraught with movements “in the wrong direction” and “wrong”. Here, all you need is perseverance. Keep a spreadsheet of passive voice forms with you and try to translate everything that catches your eye, from the sentences in your textbook to your own thoughts.
