(Examples of intransitive verbs are cry, laugh, go.) (Examples of transitive verbs are break, buy, make.) Intransitive verbs do not take an object and cannot be made passive. Only transitive verbs (verbs which take a direct object) can be made passive. You can use a passive when you want to emphasise the action itself, when the reader does not need to know who did an action, or when you do not want to emphasise who did an action (as long as you leave out the word by and the name, e.g. Using the passive voice changes the focus of your sentence. The active voice is more common than the passive. The active voice tells you what the subject of a sentence does. The passive in different languages Teachers' notes Passive and active voicesĮnglish has active and passive voices. The explanation can be downloaded as a PDF or Word document, as can the exercises ( PDF/ Word document). If you prefer, you can also see the corresponding explanation and exercises as documents. Exercise 1: Active, passive or ergative.Exercise 4: Present Simple or Present Perfect.Exercise 2: Present Simple, Past Simple or Present Perfect.Exercise 1: Present Simple, Past Simple or Present Perfect.Exercise 1: Active, Passive or Ergative.
