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Activities: “The English passive voice: What is it, how to form it, and when to use it?”

By: Erin Kuester

Activity 1: Active to passive

Let’s practice changing active voice sentences to the passive voice! For this exercise, do not use a by-phrase.

  1. Someone broke the window.

  2. Rachel emailed the report to the manager.

  3. The mechanics fixed my car.

  4. We painted the house last week.

  5. David waters the garden every night in the summer.

  6. My grandparents gave my brother a bicycle for his birthday.

  7. We ate the whole cake at the party.

  8. The librarian will give you those books.

  9. People throw thousands of coins in this fountain every year.

  10. Someone stole Hazel’s phone.

Activity 2: Uh oh!

Uh oh! It looks like someone robbed the store and the police are trying to figure out who did it! Read the newspaper story below and, for each blank space, write in the passive form of the verb in parentheses. (Be careful to use the right tense!)