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Passive Voice

(R2G Quizzes 193 - 200)

A standard English sentence is written in the active voice, where the subject performs the action on the object:

            John sold the house.

In a passive sentence, the object of the verb is moved to the beginning of the sentence:

            The house was sold by John.

The structure of a passive sentence is as follows:

                        (form of ) BE VERB + PAST PARTICIPLE

Some examples:

Past tense:                   The house was sold by John.
Past continuous:          The house was being sold.
Past perfect:                The house had been sold.
Present:                       The house is sold …
Present continuous:    The house is being sold…
Present perfect:          The house has been sold…
Future:                         The house will be sold…
                                      The house is going to be sold…

Modal verbs                The house can be sold
                                      The house should be sold
                                      The house must be sold

Infinitives                    The house needs to be sold.

Negative (past)            The house was not sold.
Question form (past)   Was the house sold?

Note that:

1  We use the past participle, no matter what the tense. For example:

            The project will be finished soon.

The sentence is set in the future. The –ed on finished indicates passive voice.

2 Sometimes we use the word ‘by’ with passive. However, sometimes ‘by’ sounds unnatural.

3 Some sentences (with no object) cannot have a passive form:

                        She jumped.                (no passive form)

4 We have forms of the passive that use HAVE and GET instead of BE. Generally, this means you ordered someone to do a task for you:

                        I need to get my car repaired.             (by someone)
                        She had her nails painted.                   (by someone)

5 When should we use passive sentences?

            1 Passive sentences are more formal. We use them in formal situations:

            Ladies and Gentlemen, the national anthem will now be played.

            2 We use passive sentences when the object of the action is more important than the subject:

            This house was built in 1875.              (not important who built it)

            Compare these two sentences:

                        1 Robert Singleton discovered the theory of quantum bias in 1875.
                        2 The theory of quantum bias was discovered in 1875.

            Sentence 1 may be used in a text about Robert Singleton. Sentence 2 may be used in a text about the theory             of quantum bias.

Past Continuous Tense

(R2G Quizzes 201 and 202)

The past continuous tense is sometimes called the past progressive tense.

The form of the tense is:

            SUBJECT      +          WAS/WERE              +          VERB(ING)

            Sammy was eating
            I was thinking
            They were walking
            We were running

The past continuous is used to describe a continuous or longer action in the past:

            I visited the Vatican while I was traveling in Italy.

I visited the Vatican is the shorter action
I was traveling is the longer action

More examples:

            She called me while I was having dinner.
            Ben was reading a book when he heard a knock at the door.
            They were walking down the street when they saw him.

Often, the past continuous tense is used to give some background detail for a story:

            The sun was shining. The birds were singing. It was a great day.

The negative form is as follows:

            Sammy was eating  =>        Sammy was not eating/Sammy wasn’t eating

            We were running     =>        We were not running/We weren’t running

The question form is as follows:

            Sammy was eating  =>        Was Sammy eating?

            We were running     =>        Were we running?

Past Modals

(R2G Quiz 204)

Modal verbs are:         could, should, must, can, would, may, might etc.

A common structure for modal verbs in the past is:

SUBJECT       +          MODAL         +          HAVE             +          PAST PARTICIPLE

            She must have been drunk.
            You should have told me.
            Henry could have died.
            It might have been an accident.
            I would have spent less money.

*HAVE is always used in this structure, never HAS

Notes:

            MUST has two meanings:   1 compulsion:             I must go.       
                                                            2 certainty:                  It must be expensive.

We use this structure only for meaning 2:

            It must have been expensive.

For meaning one, we use HAD TO:

            I had to go.

SHOULD:      We should have spent less money last vacation.

We use this structure to show regret for something that we did not do in the past. (I spent too much money, I wish I had spent less.)

COULD has several meanings:      1 past tense of can:    I couldn’t sleep.         
                                                            2 possibility:                It could be a good idea.

We use this structure only for meaning 2:

            It could have been a good idea.
            (meaning is the same as might have, may have)

For meaning 1, we use COULDN’T:

            I couldn’t sleep.

Past Participles

(R2G Quizzes 205 - 207) 

Every verb in English has three forms:

            take                 took                 taken
            see                  saw                 seen

The past participle is the third form of the verb (taken, seen).

            *Sometimes the past participle is the same as the past tense:

                        bring               brought         brought
                        look                looked          looked

            *Sometimes all three forms are the same:

                        let                    let                    let
                        put                  put                  put

Sometimes the past participle has an –ed ending and sometimes not.

There is a list of past participles below. This list contains common irregular past participles (those that do not end in –ed)

For more practice on this topic, click here.

Past Perfect Tense

(R2G Quizzes 208 and 209)

The Past Perfect Tense has the following structure:

            SUBJECT      +          HAD               +          PAST PARTICIPLE

            He had left
            She had eaten
            We had improved
            Nora had already taken it

The Past Perfect Tense is used when we are talking about the past and we wish to reference a time further in the past. That means we are talking about two different times in the past:

When we arrived in Rome, we found that Peter had already arranged our accommodation.

(Peter had arranged our accommodation before we arrived.)

Many learners confuse the Past Perfect Tense and the Present Perfect Tense.

The Present Perfect compares a past time with the present:

            I’m not hungry. I’ve already eaten.

The Past Perfect compares a past time with another time in the past:

            I was not hungry. I had already eaten.

Compared to the Present Perfect, the Past Perfect is not so commonly used. In fact, if we use the words before or after, we often just use the past tense instead:

Correct:                      Before I learned Spanish, I had learned Italian.
Also correct:              Before I learned Spanish, I learned Italian.

Just like the Present Perfect, we often use the words ‘already’ and ‘never’ with the Past Perfect:

            When Linda arrived, the guests had already left.
            Before he came to Rome, he had never eaten gelato.

We often use the Past Perfect structure with reported speech:

            Joe said he had never cooked before.
            Mary told me she had spent the day cleaning her apartment

Past Tense

(R2G Quizzes 210, 211, 213, 214)

The Past Tense is sometimes called the Simple Past Tense, or the Past Simple Tense.

The structure is as follows:

            SUBJECT       +          VERB (PT)     +…

            Danny sang.
            We left.
            They looked around the shops.

Note 1:            The BE verb is formed using WAS/WERE:

            He was hungry.
            The people were angry.

Note 2:            Take care to learn when to use the BE verb and when not to. The following is a common mistake:

Wrong:            I was helped my mother.
Right:              I helped my mother.

We use the structure WAS + Past Participle with passive sentences, and WAS + Verb(ing) with the Past Continuous Tense.

Wrong:                                    I was asked her a question.
Right:                                      I asked her a question..
Right (passive):                     I was asked a question (by her)
Right (past continuous):        I was asking a question.

Note 3:            The question form and negative form are shown below. Note that these forms use the BASE VERB.

Question Form:                       DID     + SUBJECT    + BASE VERB

                                                Did you see it?
            Did you find him?
            Did Shaun marry Joanna?

Right:              Did Shaun marry Joanna?
Wrong:            Did Shaun married Joanna?

Question Form with BE VERB:         WAS/WERE   + SUBJECT

                                                            Was it nice?
                                                            Was Tony happy?
                                                            Were the children late?

Negative Form:                       SUBJECT       + DID NOT    +          BASE VERB

                                                He did not see it.
We didn’t find him.
Shaun didn’t marry Joanna.

Right:              Shaun didn’t marry Joanna.
Wrong:            Shaun didn’t married Joanna?

Negative Form with BE VERB:         SUBJECT       +          WAS/WERE  NOT  

                                                            It was not nice. / It wasn’t nice.
                                                            Tony wasn’t happy.
                                                            The children weren’t late.

Note 4: Sometimes the past tense form of the verb has an –ed ending and sometimes not.

There is a list of past tense forms below. This list contains common irregular past tense verbs (those that do not end in –ed)

Past Tense and Past Continuous Tense

(R2G Quizzes 212)

The past simple tense takes this form:                 I slept.
The past continuous tense takes this form:          I was sleeping.

How do we know which tense to use?

1 The past continuous is used to show that an action was in progress at a particular time. The past simple shows that an action was completed:

            At 10 o’clock, I was reading a book.                    
            At 10 o’clock, I turned the oven on.

2 We use the past continuous to show a longer action interrupted by a shorter action:

            I met Christine while I was shopping.

            Shorter action:          I met Christine
            Longer Action:          I was shopping.

3 The past continuous emphasizes that the action took place over a long time:

            It was raining all day yesterday.                (long time)
            It rained yesterday.                                     (short time)

4 Sometimes we compare two longer actions that happened at the same time:

            While I was swimming, Sarah was working out in the gym.