Words in Transition

The passive voice of a verb (V) consists of a form of be (am, is, are, was, were, being, be, or been) plus the past participle of the main verb. In a sentence in the passive voice, the subject (S) receives the action; it does not do the action.

Diamonds and gold are mined in South Africa. [S] [V]

Keep the following three points in mind to form the passive voice correctly.

1. Use the past participle, not the base form or past tense, to form the passive voice.Pay particular attention to past participles of irregular verbs.A lot of electronic parts are manufacture in Southeast Asia. [manufactured]

   In my family, clothing was wore by all three children and then gave to the church. [worn] [given]

2. Identify the subject and make sure the helping verb be agrees with it. The sea otter, an endangered species, are native to the Pacific coast. [is][The subject, sea otter, is singular, even though the appositive, species, sounds plural.]
3. Use only transitive verbs in the passive voice. A transitive verb, unlike an intransitive one, always takes a direct object (DO).TransitiveJacques Villeneuve drove the car to victory in the Indy 500. [S] [V] [DO]

   [The direct object, car, receives the action of the verb drove.]

   Intransitive

   Sylvia seems forgetful lately. [V]

   [The verb seems has no direct object. Forgetful is a predicate adjective that describes the subject, Sylvia.]

   In the passive voice, the object of the action becomes the grammatical subject of the sentence.

   The car was driven to victory in the Indy 500 by Jacques Villeneuve. [S] [V]

   Since intransitive verbs have no direct object, you cannot form the passive voice with them. If you are not sure whether a verb is transitive, check your dictionary.