Arsenio’s ESL Podcast: Season 3 – Episode 45 – Passive Voice (Intermediate)

We have a difficult ESL podcast/blog in store for today, so I want you guys to brace yourself because we’re going back over the passive voice!

Listen/read the sentences. Which sentence is not in the passive?

1. The prizes are given to the athletes.
2. The Nobel Peace prize was won by Barack Obama.
3. Nelson Mandela won the Nobel Peace prize back in the 80’s.
4. These inventions won’t be used much.
5. Lots of interesting research is being done at the moment.
6. Her phone has been taken.

Rules

We use the passive when we are interested mainly in the action.

We use the passive when it isn’t obvious who does or did the action.

When we use the passive we don’t always know the person who does the action.

Add one word in each sentence to make a correct passive sentence. After that, write which tense each sentence is in.

1. The radio was invented by Marconi. Past simple.
2. Many new phones ___________ been invented in the 21st century. ______________.
3. Many jobs ___________ be done by robots in 2045. _________________.
4. Velcro, penicillin and the microwave oven ____________ invented by accident. _________________.
5. Millions of dollars ____________ spent on war every year.________________.
6. Football is _________________ by millions of people on TV each weekend.
7. The novel The Bourne Identity ___________ written by Robert Ludlum in 1980. _________________.

[buzzsprout episode=’906024′ player=’true’]