NORTEAST SCHOOL OF ACRICULTURE

THIRD FOURT-MONTH

PRACTICE ENGLISH LLL

BRAYAN MARROQUIN

GROUP PRACTICE # 3

ESTUDIENS

INTRODUCTION TO THE VOICE

• IT MAY SEEM LIKE A CONTRADICTION, BUT THERE’S NOTHING “PASSIVE” ABOUT

LEARNING THE PASSIVE VOICE.

• STUDENTS NEED TO BE AS “ACTIVE” AS EVER AND FULLY ENGAGED IN THEIR LEARNING.

BUT IT IS THE TEACHER WHO MUST ENGAGE THEM. HOW DO YOU GET STUDENTS

ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN LEARNING SOMETHING AS TEDIOUS AS THE PASSIVE VOICE?

WITH ACTION, OF COURSE! BY SHOWING THEM THAT THERE IS PLENTY OF ACTION

INVOLVED, BUT THAT THE FOCUS IS NOT ON THE ACTOR, THE ONE WHO IS CARRYING

OUT THE ACTION, BUT RATHER WHOEVER OR WHATEVER IS ACTED UPON.

• HERE IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO TEACH THE PASSIVE VOICE:

RULESPassive Voice: Active Approach1.12.Carry out an action!3.Stand in front of your class. Drop a pen on the floor. Ask your students to tell you what has just happened and ask them to begin the sentence with your name. Someone should be able to say: “Ms. Rodriguez dropped a pen on the floor.” Write this sentence on the board. Ask students to identify the subject and the verb in this sentence; they should say the subject is “Ms. Rodriguez” and that the verb is “dropped”.

1.Repeat the action - Introduce the passive voice2.Drop your pen on the floor one more time. Tell your students that you’ll tell them what has just happened, but this time your sentence will begin with, “The pen…” Go to the board and write, “The pen was dropped on the floor.” Ask your students to identify the subject; they should say it is the “pen”. Ask them to identify the verb; they should say it is “was dropped”.

1.Compare the two sentences2.Point to the first sentence and ask if the subject is doing the action. They should say it is. Make sure they understand that subject is active, the one responsible for carrying out the action.3.Point to the second sentence and ask if the subject is doing the action. They should it isn’t. Make sure they understand that the subject is passive, the one who is being acted upon.

1.Compare what happens to the verbs. Ask students what tense they see in the first example. They should recognize the past simple. Show students what happens in the second sentence: the auxiliary verb “to be” is used in the past tense (“was”) with the past participle, in this case “dropped”.2.43.Give an example with “were"4.This time drop several pens at the same time. Ask students to tell you what has just happened. Tell them to start the sentence with “The pens…” See if students figure out they should use “were” instead of “was” this time.5.56.Practice with more passive voice examples7.Carry out more actions and encourage students to describe what has happened in the passive voice:8.Teacher puts some books under a chair.S: Books were put under a chair.

1.Teacher closes a book.S: A book was closed.Teacher writes some words on the board.S: Some words were written on the board.2.Give enough examples to make students comfortable with the use of the past simple in the passive voice.3.64.Practice passive voice with negative statements5.Continue carrying out actions around the classroom, but this time challenge students to make negative statements followed by affirmative statements:6.Teacher drops some papers on the floor.S: Pens weren’t dropped on the floor. Papers were dropped.Teacher closes a door.S: A window wasn't closed. A door was closed.7.78.Practice questions in passive voice9.Carry out actions and have students ask questions:10.Teacher opens a window.S: Was the dictionary opened? What was (just) opened?11.8

1.Place the passive voice in a real life context - Discussion2.Ask students to brainstorm the types of things that the government does for the population. The government repairs streets, cleans monuments, builds schools and hospitals, etc...Make sure students see that sometimes when we talk about actions, we’re not interested in the actor, either because we know who it is (in this discussion we are clearly talking about the government), or because we'd like to emphasize the results, in other words what was accomplished. Discuss what things were done in the last year by the local government. Encourage students to use the passive voice.1.S: Streets were repaired. A new hospital was opened. The park benches were painted. Trees were planted. Etc…For all practical purposes, this article focuses on the past simple in passive voice.Introduce the passive voice in other tenses; actions work very well with the present perfect, too (“Some books have just been put away”) – and don’t forget modals! For extended practice, be sure to go to our Passive Voice Section, where you’ll find a variety of worksheets to suit your teaching needs.

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Subject Verb Object

A lot of people  saw the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black

Pearl.

Subject Verb Object

The movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

was seenby a lot of people.

EXAMPLES

Active VoiceA lot of people saw the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.Agent = the person or thing that does or performs the action.Who is doing the verb, the seeing?  A lot of people

When the agent is in the subject position, we call this kind of sentence an active voice sentence.

Passive Voice

Where is the doer of the action (seeing)?  It is in the object position and is preceded by the preposition by.When the agent is in the object position or if it is not mentioned, then the sentence will be a passive voice sentence.Where are most American films made?

American films are made in Hollywood.

What is the subject?Is American films the agent?  The doer of the verb, make?Is the agent mentioned?  If you wanted to put an agent, who would be the agent, the maker of the films?What is the time of the verb?   The winner's name will be announced.

What is the subject?Is American films the agent?  The doer of the verb, make?Is the agent mentioned?  What is the time of the verb?  

Is the passive voice a verb tense?   NO

Voice is a perspective.  Voice focuses the attention on the agent or on the receiver of the action.How do you form the passive voice?

1. Move the object of the sentence to the subject position.2. Move the agent to object position of the sentence. (Sometimes it is not necessary to mention the agent.)    (Put by in front of the agent.)3.  You need to use the same tense for the BE verb and then you add the past participle. (The past participle is the third form of the verb. For regular verbs you add -ed. For irregular verbs, look at the back of your book, pages AP32-AP34. The past participles of irregular verbs are found in the third column.) You must memorize the third form of the verbs.4.  The verb must match the same verb time, but  there must also be subject verb agreement.

Tense Active Voice Passive Voice

Simple PresentA committee chooses the best actor.

The best actor is chosen by a committee.

Present continuousThey are presenting an award now.

An award is being presented now.

Future

They will pick the best movie.They are going to pick the best movie.  

The best movie will be picked.The best movie is going to be picked.

Simple PastThey announced the winner's name.

The winner's name was announced.

Past ContinuousThey were taking photographs.

Photographs were being taken.

Present PerfectThey have chosen the best movie.

The best movie has been chosen.

ModalThey should announce the winner's name.

The winner's name should be announced.

Never use the helping verb do, does, did when you make a passive voice question.

Where was the film made?    Where did the film made?Change these sentences to the passive voice (if possible).1.Snow blanketed the city streets.2.Detectives solve mysteries.3.Someone has stolen the jewels.4.He was bothering her.  

Transitive and Intransitive VerbsIntransitive Verbs:  agree, arrive, be, become, come, die, fall, go, happen, live, look, occur, rain, recover, remain, seem, sleep, stay, walk, work, etc.

In English you have transitive and intransitive verbs.  Transitive verbs you can put an object after the verb.  Intransitive verbs you cannot put an object after the verb.

With intransitive verbs you need to put a prepositional phrase or an adverb.

My sister came the house.My sister came to my house. (You can add a prepositional phrase.)My sister came late. (You can add an adverb phrase.)

You can't change sentences to the passive voice when the verb is intransitive.Johnny Depp is an actor.An actor is been by Johnny Depp.I go to a lot of movies.   go = intransitive verb  (You don't put a direct object after these verbs.)A lot of movies are gone to by me.Sometimes a verb can be both transitive and intransitive.  The meanings are different.Look at the verb RUN.He runs around the track three times.   IntransitiveAround the track three times is run by him. (No passive voice)

Bill runs a small business.  TransitiveA small business is run by Bill. (Yes, passive voice.)

Look at page 71 of Grammar in Context 3, for more examples of verbs that can be both transitive and intransitive.  Look at the differences in meaning.

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