Grammar Level 4- Lesson One
In this grammar lesson, you learn about Passive Voice in English and how to use it in your English conversation and writing. Just follow examples and write them down a few times to learn them very well. After finishing this lesson, you should work on its quiz.
Grammar Recap
In our previous lesson, we covered the More Less Fewer If you just landed on this page, we suggest that you complete our previous lesson including its quizzes before continuing on this lesson.
Requirement Lessons
There is no required lessons for working and learning this lesson.
The Passive Voice
Subject + (be) + past participle
The verb “be” indicates the verb tense
The past participle is the main verb. To learn more about past participles go here.
In the passive voice, the subject receives the action. In other words, the subject doesn’t really do anything. Action is completed by someone or something else.
for example:
He‘s paid every other Friday. (present tense)
She was paid last Friday. (past tense)
A new house is being built across the street. (present continuous tense)
A big mess has been made in the kitchen. (present perfect)
The movie will be shown at 10:00. (future tense)
The Passive Voice is not easy when you first learn it. The key to understanding the passive voice comes when you practice changing a sentence from the active voice to the passive voice. There will be a lot of sentences to practice later in this lesson.
Active Voice: The man threw the pancake up in the air.
Passive Voice. The pancake was thrown up in the air by the man.
The first sentence sounds better. The second sentence sounds a little strange.
However, sometimes the passive voice sounds much better than the active voice.
Passive Voice: He was born in China.
Active Voice: His mother bore him in China.
bear / bore / born
bore = past tense
born = past participle
The sentence in the passive voice sounds good. The second sentence in the active voice sounds really, really bad. Sometimes only the passive voice is used when speaking or writing, and this is why it’s so important to understand.
Quiz for Passive Voice
Now that you learned your new lesson, it is time to go to the Passive Voice page and finish your quiz. While working on your quiz, you can always go back to its lesson to refresh your memory.
Private Lessons in English
If you need help with quizzes of this lesson, you can hire one of our expert private English teachers by going to our Private English Tutors page and submit a request. When submitting your request, make sure to mention the grammar level and lesson number.
Next Grammar Lesson
In our next lesson, we will cover the I was Born Before moving to the next lesson, we suggest that you complete this lesson including its quizzes.
Related Grammar Lessons
None
Grammar Level 4 Outline
If you wish to explore all lessons that are covered in HiCafe Grammar Level 4, you can visit the Grammar Level 4 Outline page.
Practice English Grammar Skills
For a comprehensive practice of English grammar with quizzes, you can visit the Improve English Grammar Skills page to view HiCafe 250 grammar lessons in 7 levels plus prepositions and pronouns.