verb to be

THE PASSIVE VOICE

This is one of the most difficult topics in English language. There are many ways to say one same thing, so, some people apply it in order to avoid the repetition or to seem very polite. Today I am going to explain it to you use it as well, HERE WE GO!!!

Before starting I have to leave clear that ACTIVE VOICE is the normal way to use the language, I mean, the use of SUBJECT+VERB+OBJECT, (remember that every tense has its own variation). So in PASSIVE VOICE the original OBJECT will be the SUBJECT of the sentence, in other words it would be something like this OBJECT+BE+VERB PP+SUBJECT.  It is easy and you will understand it.

The first thing you have to know is that the verb to be is so necessary; you are going to need it. You can make passive voice sentences in any tense conjugating that verb in the time you want to speak.

Another thing you must know about this topic is that the main verb must go in its past participle conjugation, if you want to know more about conjugations click here.

And the most important thing about this is… the object of the sentences will be the subject. If you don’t get it, don’t worry, we will see some examples in order to understand it. The original subject in the Active Voice is not necessary in the Passive Voice sentence, if you want to put it, it’s up to you. In my opinion, I prefer to put it because it gives more information and it is clearer.

And finishing, when you turn an ACTIVE VOICE sentence into a PASSIVE VOICE one, you have to think that the normal conjugation rules also apply to the new SUBJECT. Let’s see the examples to get it.

Here a little chart where you can see all the possible conjugations of it.

Let’s see some examples.

1. Active Voice:  “Sammy Plays tennis”. As you can see that sentence is in Simple Present, so the passive voice must go in Simple present as well but this time using the verb to be and the verb in PP (Past Participle), something like this “The tennis is played by Sammy (or ´her´ if you don’t want to write the name again)”

2. Active: The soldiers are running in the field (sentence in Present Progressive “ing”)

PASSIVE: The field is being run by the soldiers (They)

3. ACTIVE: I have ridden the same motorcycle (Sentence in Present Perfect “have”)

PASSIVE: The same motorcycle has been ridden by me

Hello, Today I bring a useful reading in order to make you identify various things in a text, like the kind of the text, what you can infer about it.

By about 30.000 years ago, modern humans had spread to almost all parts of the world. They were almost exactly the same as people of today, although a little shorter.

These people lived mainly by hunting. They caught antelope, rabbits, pigs, elephants, birds and other animals. Some of the animal they killed were quite large. This shows that the people must have lived in large groups and worked together. The people in the groups probably had leaders.

The work of the men and the women was probably very different. The men hunted and built places to live in. They made tools. The women prepared food and looked after the children. They made clay pots and they used skins to make clothes. Living in large groups helped their language to develop. People started to make paintings on the Walls of caves. At this time most of the paintings show animals and hunting scenes. They also made carved objects out of bones and Stone.

Source: Los Tres Editores s. a. s. (Estándares y competencias en IDIOMA EXTRANJERO 11°)

El verbo To Be es un verbo irregular que posee su propio modo de conjugación en el  simple present, él normalmente es usado para hacer descripciones o para mencionar la ubicación de un lugar, persona o animal, aquí vamos a usar mucho los adjetivos.

          IS                            ARE                             AM

He               It              You           We                     I

         She                            They

Estructuras:

(Para hacer descripciones)

(+)  Pron  +  aux verb  +  Adjective

(-)  Pron  +  aux verb  +  not  +  Adjective

(?)  aux verb  +  Pron  +  Adjective?

Ex: 

You are little

You are not (aren't) little

Are you little?

* La negación puede ser contraída de esta manera (isn't - Aren't) pero la recomendación es ponerla por separado ya que es la manera más formal.

(Para mencionar ubicaciones)

(+)  Pron  +  aux verb  +  in  + compl

(-)  Pron  +  aux verb  +  not  +  in  + compl

(?)  aux verb  +  Pron  +  in  + compl?

Ex:

He is in the school

He is not (isn't) in the school

Is he in the school?

Hello, today I bring a very useful information about a topic that is very used in this beautiful language, I hope you enjoy it, don't forget to share it with your friends or with people who may need it.

The verb to Be is an irregular verb that has its own way to conjugate in simple present, it is normally used for making descriptions or for mentioning the location of a place, person or an animal, here we are going to need adjectives.

          IS                            ARE                             AM

He               It              You           We                     I

         She                            They

Structures:

(For making descriptions)

(+)  Pron  +  aux verb  +  Adjective

(-)  Pron  +  aux verb  +  not  +  Adjective

(?)  aux verb  +  Pron  +  Adjective?

Ex: 

You are little

You are not (aren't) little

Are you little?

* The negation could be contracted in this way (isn't - Aren't) but the recoomendation is to put them separately, because it is more formal.

(For mentioning location)

(+)  Pron  +  aux verb  +  in  + compl

(-)  Pron  +  aux verb  +  not  +  in  + compl

(?)  aux verb  +  Pron  +  in  + compl?

Ex:

He is in the school

He is not (isn't) in the school

Is he in the school?