Passive 1
Basic uses
1. Transitive and intransitive
Eg. My purse was found by one of the cleaners.
2. Agent and instrument
Eg. How was the answer arrived at?
3. Verbs with two objects
Active. A note was handed to me.
Passive: I was handed a note.
4. Verbs with objects and complement
Some verbs have a noun or adjective which describes their object.
Active: We elected Büşrasu class representative.
When this is made passive, the complement goes directly after the verb.
Passive: Büşrasu was elected class representative.
5. Translation
The use of the passive in English and in other languages are not necessarily the same. Some languages may use passive forms where English uses active ones and vice versa.
6. Tenses
Although it is possible to form a wide range of passive tenses, the most used are present simple and continuous, past simple and continuous, present perfect simple, past perfect simple, will future and future perfect.
Passive 2
1. Have something done: I was having the roof repaired when it happened.
2.Get something done: Tuğçe always gets things done in her office.
3. Reporting Verbs
a) Present Reference
With verbs such as believe, know, say, think which report people's opinions, apassive construction is often used to avoid a weak subject and to give a generalised opinion.
With present reference, the passive is followed by the present infinitive.
Eg. People think that Ahmetcan is in İstanbul.
Ahmetcan is thought to be in İstanbul.
b) Past Reference
With past reference, the passive is followed by the perfect past infinitive.
Eg. People believe that Oğul left Ankara last week.
Oğul is believed to have left Ankara last week.
c) Past reporting verb
If the reporting verb is in the past, the perfect infinitive tends to follow, though not always if the verb be is used.
Eg. The police thought that the thies was still in the house.
The thief was thought to still be in the house.
4. Verbs with Prepositions
a) By and With
With is used after participles such as filled, packed, crowded, crammed.
Eg. The train was packed with computers.
The difference between by and with may involve the presence of person:
Eg. Alper was hit by a branch ( an accident)
Alper was hit with a branch. ( a person hit him with one)
b) Make is followed by to when used in the passive.
Eg: Zeynep Hoca made me work hard.
I was made to work hard by Zeyneo Hoca.
c) Cover and verbs which involve similar ideas, such as surround, decorate can use with or by.Cover can also be followed by in.
Further information related with PASSIVE
