Passive

1. Use of passive :

-We use it to describe activities of industry, science and technology, and for official rules.

Bananas “Chiquita” are exported to Europe.
Payment can be made at any post office.

-The passive is also often used in news reports.

A number of political prisoners have been released.

-Use the passive if you don’t know who does the action.

His wallet was stolen.

-The passive can be used if there is no interest about who does the action.

A house was built in the village.

-We can use the passive when we already know who does the action and we don’t need to mention it.

The aircraft was bought safety.

Active Passive
Natacha eats an apple. An apple is eaten by Natacha.

In the active, we focus on who ate the apple (Natacha), while in the passive, we focus on what was eaten (the apple).
We can use by when we want to say who or what did the action.

3. Passive with get

-We sometimes use get in the passive instead (à la place) of be.

-We use get for something happening by accident or unexpectedly (à l’improviste).

Lots of postmen get bitten by dog.

-In negative and questions in the present simple and past simple, we use a form of do.

The windows don’t get cleaned very often.
How did the painting get damaged?

-We also use get in these expressions: get dressed/ changed/ washed/ engaged/ married/ divorced/ started/ lost.

4. They, people, you, one, someone, etc.

Active Passive
They clean the streets every day. The streets are cleaned every day.

We do not use by because the important information is how often the streets are cleaned. We are not interested in saying who cleans them.

5. Special passive structure

5.1. I was given

Some flowers were given to Aline. Aline was given some flowers.

This is about the flowers, and This is about Aline, and it it tells us who received them. tells us what she received.

If we use the passive sentence,