| TALKING ABOUT HISTORY |
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Agenda: - Show some picture of famouse monuments - Make a review about the pass participle of verbs. - Explain the use of structure of passive voice sentences. - Present some examples - Have the students practicing the passive voice using the links given. - Students will make an oral presentation about a famous monument using the passive voice correctly. PASSIVE VOICE A passive construction occurs when you make the object of an action into the subject of a sentence. That is, the one performing the action is not the grammatical subject of the sentence. To rephrase a familiar joke: Why was the road crossed by the chicken? The chicken is the actor in this sentence, but the road is the grammatical subject. The more familiar phrasing places the actor as the subject--a subject doing something: A chicken (actor/doer) crossing the road (object). We use active verbs to represent that "doing," whether it be crossing roads, proposing ideas, arguing arguments, or invading houses (more on that shortly). Passive constructions are easy to spot; look for a form of "to be" (is, are, am , was, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been, being) followed by a past participle. (The past participle is a form of the verb often, but not always, ending in "-ed." Some exceptions to the "-ed" rule are words like "paid" and "driven.") Here's a sure-fire formula for identifying the passive voice: form of "to be" + past participle = passive voice For example: The metropolis has been scorched by the dragon's fiery breath. When her house was invaded, Penelope had to think of ways to delay her remarriage -Compare these active sentences and passive voice sentences: active: The boy ate the apple. passive: The apple was eaten by the boy. active: Mary will drive the van. passive: The van will be driven by Mary. **NOTE: the passive voice is marked by a form of "to be" + the past participle--not a form of "have" alone + the past participle, as some students believe. So don't let the combination of "have" and "to be" fool you. Many English teachers tell students that they should not use the passive voice. Teachers do this because many students use the passive voice without a clear purpose for using it. When the passive voice is used correctly, it is a useful and necessary verb tense in English. There are two main reasons for using the passive voice in English: The focus of the sentence is on the object rather than the subject The subject of the active sentence is unknown or general. Oftentimes, when a sentence is in passive voice, the "by" phrase is deleted. This is because the doer of the action is understood or unknown. The "by" phrase is only retained when the doer of the action needs to be made clear even though the focus is on the object of the action. |