Bat 1. Unit 6. Passive voice & Causative Verbs

Rule I.
We use the passive voice when it is not important who or what does the action. We use the active voice when we know or it is important who or what does the action. The passive voice is less usual than the active voice.

Example
This book was published a week ago.
(“Was published” is a passive voice. We don’t know who has published this book, it’s not important who. But the fact is that the book is published.)

Example
Mr. Smith/The publishing house “X” published this book a week ago.
(Here is the active voice. We know exactly who has published the book.)

When we want to say who does or what causes this or that action, we use by or with.

Examples
a) This book was published by Mr. Smith.
b) The room was filled with smoke.

We form the passive voice with the help of auxiliary verb “to be” and the past participle of the main verb.
To be (am, are, is, was, were, have been, had been) + Past Participle II :

Tenses	Voices	Examples
Present simple	active: tell(s) passive: am/is/are told	She tells She is told
Past simple	active: told passive: was/were told	She told She was told
Future simple	active: will tell passive: will be told	She will tell She will be told
Present continuous	active: am/is/are telling passive: am/is/are being told	She is telling She is being told
Past continuous	active: was/were telling passive: was/were being told	She was telling She was being told
Future continuous	active: will be telling passive: …(doesn’t exist)	She will be telling …(doesn’t exist)
Present perfect simple	active: have/has told passive: have/has been told	She has told She has been told
Past perfect simple	active: had told passive: had been told	She had told She had been told
Future perfect	active: will have told passive: will have been told	She will have told She will have been told

Modal verbs
Can/could, may/might, must/have to, ought to, shall/should, will/would + be done/have been done:
Examples
a) Will your room be cleaned?
b) This lesson mustn’t be learned.
c) Tigers can be seen in our Zoo.
d) My bag must have been stolen.


Rule II.
We don’t use intransitive verbs in the passive voice.
There are:
To be, to become, to have, to consist, to belong, to possess, to arrive, to fly, to fit, to hold,
to resemble, to seem, to go, to come, to appear.

Examples
a) Tom has a nice car.
b) Kate has become a great gift.
c) You seem to be aghast.


Rule III.
It is also very important to know that there are some verbs that can have two objects.
So, that’s mean that it’s possible to make two passive sentences.
Example
Mr. Smith offered Kate the job. (Kate and the job are two objects)

Let’s make the first passive sentence:
1. Kate was offered the job.

And now the second passive sentence:
2. The job was offered to Kate.

But it is more usual for the passive sentence to begin with the person. There are other verbs which can have two objects.
Here they are:
ask, pay, tell, teach, give, show, allow, promise, refuse, deny.

Examples
a) Tom will be paid for his work next week.
b) We were given the information about our final exam.
c) Have you been shown the books?


Rule IV.
We can use the structure have something done to talk about things we pay or employ other people to do for us.
Examples
— Kate made the dress. (here she made the dress herself)
— Kate had the dress made. (here she employed somebody to make the dress, so she didn’t make it herself)

We form this construction in this way:
We use the verb have + object + past participle.
Examples
a) Kate had the dress made. (here is the past form)
b) We have the office cleaned every evening.

But we should be very careful with the word order. We put the object before the past participle, not after it.
Examples
— We have cleaned the office every evening.— We have the office cleaned every evening. (It’s right!)


Rule V.
We can also use “get something done” instead of “have something done“. But it is less formal.
Examples
a) We get the office cleaned every evening.
b) Kate get the dress made.


Rule VI.
We use “have something done” or “get something done” in different tenses.
But we should use the correct form of the verb “have” or the verb “get“.

Tenses	Examples
Present simple	Kate has the dress made.
Past simple	Kate had the dress made.
Future simple	Kate will have the dress made.
Present continuous	Kate is having the dress made.
Past continuous	Kate was having the dress made.
Future continuous	Kate will be having the dress made.
Present perfect simple	— Has Kate had the dress made? — Kate has had the dress made.
Past perfect simple	— Had Kate had the dress made? — Kate had had the dress made.
Present perfect continuous	Kate has been having the dress made.
Past perfect continuous	Kate had been having the dress made.

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Try now on some of these exercises to see if you fully understood it:

http://www.ihbristol.com/free-english-exercises/test/esol-smc-passive-causative-sentences
http://www.englishlab.net/hp/quiz28_mixed_tenses_4_active_passive_story.htm
http://grammar-quizzes.com/passive1d.html
http://grammar-quizzes.com/passive1c.html
http://grammar-quizzes.com/passive1b.html

Bat 1. Unit 5. Reported Speech

Here you have the slide presentation we've been working on the last weeks in class. It is expected that it helps you to revise and check those things that you did not fully understand. 

In case you still have some doubts, have a try on the links provided below:

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/reported.htm

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/reported-speech/exercises?10

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/reported-speech/exercises?11

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-reported-speech.php#.Uw8GTvl5N9U