turn from active to passive
17. People say that the company is losing a lot of money.
18. When is he going to pay the taxes?
19. Who has designed these buildings?
20. How much do they spend on these activities?
Answers
In the active voice, the subject of the sentence DOES the action:
Jake wrote a letter.
subject / verb / object
In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is acted upon:
A letter was written (by Jake).
subject / verb
Notice that the object of the active sentence (letter) became the subject of the passive sentence. If we want, we can include “by Jake” to say who did the action.
We do not include “by…” when:
The doer of the action is unknown:
The money was stolen.
The doer of the action is “people in general”:
Black cats are believed to bring bad luck.
The doer of the action is completely unimportant:
This bridge was built in 1889. (probably by a construction company)
The passive voice is formed by a form of the verb TO BE + past participle of the main verb.
The form of the verb “to be” is the same as