We use passive when:

1. When the agent of the action is not important or at least the action itself is more important than who did it.

Everybody knows that Shakespeare wrote ‘Romeo and Juliet’. So when we just want to say when he did that, we say:

‘Romeo and Juliet’ was written towards the end of the seventeenth century.

2. When you want to sound more formal.

The prize for the most effective Polish sales company will be presented  during the evening reception.

3. When you want to provide additional information later on in the sentence instead of making another sentence.

The prize for the most effective Polish sales company will be presented by  the President during the evening reception.

Please remember:

1. When you make an active sentence passive, you must always keep the tense of the sentence. Otherwise, you change the meaning and you might say something else that you have intended to.

2. You do not normally use Passive with Perfect Continuous tenses,  as well as Future Continuous.

3. You introduce the agent using ‘by’ and the tool using ‘with’

Kennedy was assassinated by Harvey Oswald with a gunshot.

4. If ‘someone’ or ‘somebody’ is the subject of the active sentence you do not make it the agent of the passive sentence. Just omit it.

Somebody stole the car is changed into passive as The car was stolen

5. If the passive sentence does not have an agent and you want to make it active, use ‘they’.

My car was stolen- They stole my car.

Subject (podmiot)	‘to be’ in the appropriate tense form	III form
The prize	will be	presented

 

Tense	ACTIVE	PASSIVE
Present Simple   Present Continuous   Past Simple   Past Continuous   Present Perfect   Present Perfect Continuous   Past Perfect   Past Perfect Continuous   Future Simple   Future Continuous   Future Perfect   Future Perfect Continuous	I do the projects   I am doing the project   I did the project   I was doing the project   I have done the project   I have been doing the project   I had done the project   I had been doing the project   I will do the project   I will be doing the project   I will have done the project   I will have been doing the project	The projects are done   The project is being done   The project was done   The project was being done   The project has been done   Does not apply   The project had been done   Does not apply   The project will be done   Does not apply   The project will have been done   Does not apply

Make the following sentences passive:

1. EMI has released all his records in the United Kingdom.

2. Which project did they sell?

3. They are holding the next Winter Olympic games in Salt Lake City.

4. They will present the new model of convertible at the Exhibition.

5. John Mikleton designed the sleeve of the CD.

6. They are building the new stadium in the residents’ area.

7. Have they asked you abut the new challenge?

8. They are painting the office now.

9. They will have announced the winner by the time we get there.

10. They have awarded the company on the basis of the customer survey.

11. They will take god care of her.

12. He doesn’t like when his superiors order him to do this or that.

13. They were catching up with my pace of work so I had to speed up a bit.

14. The boss had given me the agenda of the meeting before he flew to Mexico.

15. You must complete the computer work on this folder as soon as possible.

16. Doctors perform lots of plastic surgeries among middle aged female business executives.

Translate the following sentences into English using passive:

1. Czy ktoś cię widział gdy wieczorem wchodziłeś do firmy?

2. Właśnie zostałem poinformowany, że …………………………..

3. Nowy model drukarki zostanie wprowadzony na rynek w drugim kwartale.

4. Jeżeli nadal będziesz się tak zachowywał, zostaniesz poproszony o opuszczenie klubu.

5. Nie zapłacono jeszcze za tę partię towaru.

6. Po angielsku mówi się na większości spotkañ biznesowych w Europie.

7. Liverpool został pokonany przez Arsenal w półfinale.

8. Podawano lunch gdy dyskutowaliśmy projekt.

9. Kto wynalazł komputerową myszkę?

10. Dlaczego te statystyki nie zostały jeszcze podane?

11. Mam nadzieję, że twój pomysł zostanie uważnie wysłuchany.

12. Dlaczego nie poinformowano mnie, że goście przyjadą dziesięć minut przed czasem?

13. Czy poseł i senator zostaną zaproszeni na spotkanie?

14. Powszechnie uważa się, że obecnie najlepsze wino świata produkowane jest w słonecznej Kalifornii.

15. Tysiące dolarów zostały zebrane na tej imprezie.

16. Ogłoszono, że firma nie finansowała kampanii wyborczej żadnego kandydata.

17. Komputery i oprogramowanie zostaną dostarczone przez wyspecjalizowaną firmę.