Passives

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

SSIESPAV

Today: Passives

Recap: past simple, past perfect

Past perfect passive

Why do we use passives?

Academic/formal writing

To change the focus

When who or what causes the action is unknown or unimportant or obvious or 'people in general'

Ex. The police arrested him - He was arrested (by the police)

Recap: Past simple

How: verb+ed / irregular verb 2nd column

When: something happened at one point in the past and ended

(last week, in 2012, yesterday etc.)

Passive: to be + past simple

                    Past simple                                Past simple passive

       The police arrested him    -    He was arrested (by the police)

Past Perfect (passive)

How: had + past participle 

When: an event took place in the past before another past event 

Passive: had been + past participle 

past perfect: 

The police had never arrested me before I went to that party        

past perfect passive:

I had never been arrested before I went to that party           

1. One day he arrived home to find
that his brother ............. killed in an explosion.

2. When the war ended four years later,
dynamite ......... used to take away the lives of thousands of young men.

Rule: we form the past perfect passive
with the past perfect form of the verbs
be/have + the infinitive/past participle of the main verb

1. be + infinitive
2. be + past participle
3. have + infinitive
4. have + past participle

The infinitive = hele werkwoord zonder 'to'

Past participle = voltooid deelwoord

Practise time!

Use Past Simple Passive (was/were + voltooid deelwoord)

or

Past Perfect Passive (had been + voltooid deelwoord)

Example: 

When the soldiers got home, they discovered that their homes had been destroyed (destroy) during the war. 

When we got to the bookshop, we were too late! The last copy ......... (sell).

There was a terrible car accident in my street last night - one man ......... (kill).

I was angry when I got to the shop because my bicycle ............... (not repair).

Evaluation

Past simple: verb + ed / 2nd form irregular verbs

Past Perfect: had + past participle (voltooid deelwoord)

Past simple passive: to be + verb + ed / 2nd form irregular verbs

Past perfect passive: had been + past participle (voltooid dlw)

Practise tips

Workbook: page 42 ex. 1a+b+c

Student book: page 55 ex. 2a+b+c+d