Grammar: Passive voice

Audio 6 : Act out and find out the passive voice examples.

Audio 7: The AIRBUS A380 plane

Passive voice

Structure

• What's this building used for?
• Real robots are produced in my country.
• Printers are produced here too.
• Rice is grown in Japan.

The same sentences in the active voice:

• What do they use this building for?
• They produce real robots in my country.
• They produce printers here too.
• They grow rice in Japan.

If we want to focus on the object, we should use the passive voice.

What do we need?

We need the verb to be and the past participle of a verb. More examples:

• Cars are made in Spain.
• Children are usually helped by their parents.
• Cheese is produced from milk.
• Bridges are built over rivers.
• That newspaper is published in Mexico.

Useful resources:

• Passive forms: website BritishCouncil
• Active and passive voices (examples): website really-learn-english
• Exercises on line: website englisch-hilfen