2.2 the passive

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Domanda English Risposta English
Form the passive with
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be + past participle.
In a passive sentence, the agent (the doer of the action)
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may or may not be mentioned.
The press follows him everywhere.
active, present simple
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He's followed everywhere by the press.
passive, present simple
The police are monitoring his emails.
active, present continuous
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His emails are being monitored by the police.
passive. present continuous
Fire destroyed the building.
active, past simple
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The building was destroyed by the fire.
passive, past simple
Someone's eaten my sandwich.
active, present perfect
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My sandwich has been eaten.
passive, present perfect
Someone will tell you.
active, will
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You'll be told.
passive, will
We can't do it now.
active, modals
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It can't be done now.
passive, modals
I don't like people criticising me.
active, -ing form
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I don't like being criticised.
passive, -ing form
The organisers want people to give feedback.
active, infinitive with to
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The organisers want to be given feedback.
passive, infinitive with to
The company has apologised for losing email details of hundreds of its customers. The details were left on a train by a member of staff.
In the second sentence the writer uses the passive to keep the focus of the text on the email details and not on the person who left them.
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Use the passive to emphasise the main focus of a text or sentence.
A man's been arrested on suspicion of murder.
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Use the passive when the agent is obvious
I hate being watched when I'm practising Tai Chi.
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Use the passive when the agent is not important
I'm being sent a large number of spam emails these days.
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Use the passive when the agent is unknown.
The issue is discussed later in this paper. No survivors have been found in the disaster.
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In more formal texts (e.g. academic writing, scientific reports) and certain text types (e.g. some newspapers articles, radio/TV news)
All complaints will be taken seriously.
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to create a distance between the agent and the action, for example to avoid responsability
It is said / believed / reported / thought / understood ... that... It is reported that a shockingly large proportion of the world population is out of work.
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In formal writing this construction is often used:

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