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In this post, we are going to look at the Passive. The Passive is quite common in everyday speech, so it’s worth trying to understand it.

the passive - 受身形 / it’s worth trying to - ～をしようとする価値がある

The key to understanding the passive is grasping the nuance of the past participle, so let’s start by looking at a few that come up in everyday situations.

grasp - 把握する / past participle - 過去分詞 / come up - 出てくる

• ” fried chicken ” - ‘fried’ is the past participle of ‘fry’ (揚げる) and it means 揚げられた.
• ” lost property ” - ‘lost’ is the past participle of ‘lose’ (無くす・失う) and it means 無くされた.
• ” home-made cake ” - ‘made’ is the past participle of ‘make’ (作る) and it means 作られた. 家で作られたケーキ＝手作りのケーキ.

You can see from these examples that the past participle has a passive meaning. One feature of the passive is that it is not important who fried the chicken. We use the passive when the action itself is the important information, not the person who performed the action.

feature - 相 / the action itself - その動作自体 / perform - 行う

The passive is made with the verb ‘BE’ and the past participle of another verb. Here are a few simple examples of positive and negative sentences as well as some questions. If you like, you can use the audio for some shadowing practise.

Sake is made from rice. He was born in Ireland. She has been sacked. Mistakes will be made. He is going to be promoted.	You are not paid to sit around all day. I wasn’t born in a hospital. We haven’t been invited. It won’t be finished in time. The contract isn’t going to be signed today.
What is sake made from? Where were you born? Have you been invited? Will he be given another chance? Is he going to be promoted?

That’s really all there is to it. You have to be able to use the verb ‘be’ in various tenses, and you have to know the past participles of verbs. Here is a list of the different forms of the verb ‘be’.

PRESENT SIMPLE : am / is / are

PRESENT CONTINUOUS : am being / is being / are being

PAST SIMPLE : was / were

PAST CONTINUOUS : was being / were being

PRESENT PERFECT : have been / has been

‘WILL’ FUTURE : will be

‘GOING TO’ FUTURE : am going to be / is going to be / are going to be

If you want to say who performed the action of a passive sentence, you have to use ‘by’ :

• I was given this picture by my homestay mother.
• She was invited by me.
• He was advised by his teacher to take the examination.
• We were woken up by the sound of gunfire.

Here’s an exercise for you. Use the passive of one of these verbs to complete the sentence and then listen to the audio for each question to see if you were right.

clean / damage / find / give / invite / make / make / show / steal / take

1. The room ____ every day.
2. I saw an accident yesterday. Two people ____ to hospital.
3. Paper ____ from wood.
4. There was a fire at the hotel last week. Two of the rooms ____.
5. ‘Where did you get this picture?’ - ‘It ____ to me by a friend of mine.’
6. Many American programmes ____ on British television.
7. ‘Did Jim and Sue go to the wedding?’ - ‘No, they ____ but they didn’t go.’
8. ‘How old is this film?’ - ‘It ____ in 1965.’
9. My car ____ last week but the next day it ____ by the police.

How did you do?

I hope this simple review of the passive has been useful for you.