PASSIVES
Study the example:
ACTIVE: Mary buys bread every day Susan doesn't buy jewels
subj. object
PASSIVE: Bread is bought by Mary every day Jewels aren't bought bySusan
Object of passive sentence + verb “to be” in the SAME tense as the active verb (in this case present simple) + the past participle of the active verb + by + subject of the active sentence + the rest of the sentence.
ACTIVE
PASSIVE
Present simple
Present simple passive
My father reads a newspaper every Sunday
A newspaper is read by my father every Sunday
Past simple
Past simple passive
Tommy saw a fantastic film in the cinema
A fantastic film was seen in the cinema by Tommy
Present continuous
Present continuous passive
The men are building a new road
A new road is being built by the men
Past continuous
Past continuous passive
They were writing a novel
A novel was being written (by them)*
Present perfect
Present perfect passive
We have won the lottery
The lottery has been won (by us)*
Past perfect
Past perfect passive
Somebody had told her the truth
She had been told the truth (by somebody)*
Future
Future passive
They will elect a new president
A new president will be elected (by them)*
To be going to
To be going to passive
My parents are going to buy a new house
A new house is going to be bought by my parents
*If the subject of the active sentence is a pronoun, or a word like somebody, it can be omitted; if you decide to write the pronoun, you must change the subject pronoun to object pronoun.
They built a new house Anew house was built by them
