Understanding the Passive Voice and Relative Clauses
The passive:
| TENSE | ACTIVE | PASSIVE |
| Present Simple | Tourists visit the castle | The castle is visited by tourists |
| Past Simple | Tourists visited the castle | The castle was visited by tourists |
| Future Simple | Tourists will visit the castle | The castle will be visited by tourists |
| Present Continuous | Tourists are visiting the castle | The castle is being visited by tourists |
| Past Continuous | Tourists were visiting the castle | The castle was being visited by tourists |
| Present Perfect Simple | Tourists have visited the castle | The castle has been visited by tourists |
| Past Perfect Simple | Tourists had visited the castle | The castle had been visited by tourists |
| Modals | Tourists should visit the castle | The castle should be visited by tourists |
| Modal Perfect | Tourists should have visited the castle | The castle should have been visited by tourists |
The passive is formed with the verb to be + the past participle of the main verb.
When transforming an active sentence into a passive one, the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. The verb in the passive sentence is put in the same tense as the one in the active voice. Finally, the subject of the active voice becomes the agent complement (preceded by “by”) in the passive sentence.
| Subject | Verb | Object | |
| Active | Cervantes | wrote | Don Quixote |
| Passive | Don Quixote | was written | by Cervantes |
Modal verbs and the form “going to” cannot be put into the passive voice since they do not have a past participle. In these cases, it is the infinitive that follows that is put into the passive:
- He had to abandon the house → The house had to be abandoned.
- The family is going to sell their house → Their house is going to be sold.
- You can do it easily → It can be done easily.
If the subject of the active sentence is a personal pronoun (I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they), when changing it to passive, you must change it to its corresponding object pronoun (me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them) since it goes after the preposition “by”. However, when the subject of the active sentence is a personal pronoun, it is not usually used as an agent complement in the passive.
– He will inform everybody → Everybody will be informed (by him)
Active Sentences with Two Objects
If the active sentence has two objects (direct object and indirect object), two passive sentences can be formed; one with the direct object as the subject of the passive sentence and another with the indirect object as the subject of the passive sentence. The most common of the two is the one that takes the indirect object of the active sentence as the passive subject.
ACTIVE: They offered Harry a good job
- PASSIVE 1: Harry was offered a good job.
- PASSIVE 2: A good job was offered to Harry.
When the direct object is used as the subject of the passive, the indirect object will be preceded by “to”. Among the verbs that admit this structure are: give, send, show, lend, ask, tell, order, and pay.
- They didn’t lend us any money → We weren’t lent any money.
- They have paid me a lot of money this time → I have been paid a lot of money this time.
Other Uses of the Passive
The passive can also be used with verbs like say, think, report, know, believe, etc. In these cases, and in structures like the ones we will see below, we can form two different types of passive.
ACTIVE: Experts say that this house dates back to the 12th century.
- PASSIVE 1: It is said that this house dates back to the 12th century.
- PASSIVE 2: This house is said to date back to the 12th century.
ACTIVE: They believe (that) this sword belonged to King Arthur.
- PASSIVE 1: It is believed that this sword belonged to King Arthur.
- PASSIVE 2: This sword is believed to have belonged to King Arthur.
ACTIVE: They thought (that) the flowers had arrived from Holland.
- PASSIVE 1: It was thought that the flowers had arrived from Holland.
- PASSIVE 2: The flowers were thought to have arrived from Holland.
Relative Clauses
Relative Pronouns:
- Who: To refer to people
- Which: To refer to objects
- Whom: To refer to people (more formal) and always when we talk about a person and have a preposition before the relative (to whom).
- Whose: To indicate possession
- Where: To refer to a place
- When: To refer to a moment
- Why: To indicate a reason
Defining Clauses
- They provide essential information to understand who or what we are talking about.
The boy who lives next door is a tennis player.
- In this type of relative clause, “which” and “who” can be replaced by “that”.
The book which/that you are reading is amazing.
- Sometimes we can omit the relative pronouns “who” and “which”. We must check if there is another subject behind it, and if so, we can omit it.
The exercise (which) the teacher (subject) corrected was really hard.
Non-Defining Clauses
- They provide extra information that is not essential to understand who or what we are referring to.
- They are placed between commas.
- We NEVER use “that” in this type of relative clause.
- We CANNOT omit the relative pronoun.
Maria, who won a medal last year, is going to take part in the marathon.
The new film, which will be released in May, revolves around the adventures of a group of teenagers.
My boss, whose wife owns three restaurants, is a hard-working person.
Vocabulary
| Agriculture | Agriculturist | Mountain | Mountaineer |
| Conservation | Conservationist | Poison | Poisoner |
| Ecology | Ecologist | Protection | Protector |
| Environment | Environmentalist | Tourism | Tourist |
| Farming | Farmer | Trade | Trader |
| Hunting | Hunter | Value | Valuer |
| Agriculture | Agricultural | Extinction | Extinct |
| Conservation | Conservative | Mountain | Mountainous |
| Danger | Dangerous | Poison | Poisonous |
| Death | Deathly | Protection | Protective |
| Destruction | Destructive | Threat | Threatening |
| Development | Developing | Tourism | Touristic |
| Ecology | Ecological | Trade | Tradeable |
| Environment | Environmental | Value | Valuable |
Close to extinction, Endangered species, Illegal trade, Land development, Natural habitat, Responsible tourism, Serious threat, Valuable fur
Die → Death, Lose → Loss, Survive → Survival, Threat → Threaten
| -er | -or | -ant/-ent | -ee | -ist | -an/-ian |
leader teacher runner | survivor actor inspector | consultant president resident | refugee employee trainee | economist dentist journalist | Chilean musician historian |
| People | Countries and Places | Political Systems and Events | Conflict and Protest |
citizen leader president prime minister | border kingdom state | democracy government monarchy parliament republic | demonstration independence revolution riot regime |
Democratic elections, ethnic tension, gain independence, ignite a conflict, mass demonstrations, outbreak of war, ruling party, transition to democracy.
Phrasal Verbs
-Die out: Become extinct
-Carry on: Continue or go on
-Cut down: Destroy or reduce amount
-Wipe out: Exterminate
-Look after: Take care of
-Break out: Start suddenly (something negative, such as war or fighting)
-Get through to: Contact or reach a person or place
-Break up: Split into different parts
-Go on: Continue to do something
-Break away: Become separated or escape from