# 3. The U.S.A. is regarded as one of the most powerful countries in the world (introduction to passive)

> In this topic you are going to have a look at the passive voice in English. We will focus on the present and past tenses. Notice that there are some differences in use between Spanish and English passive voices.

# Curiosidad

Imagen en Whitehouse de Pete Souza. Licencia CC.

President Barack Obama

Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.

His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.

With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.

He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African—American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.

President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.

He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. He and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.

Taken from www.Whitehouse.gov.

# Actividad de lectura

President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose.

He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008.

Read the text above about President Obama and notice the uses of two passive sentences.

Decide which one is in the Simple Present and which in the Simple Past, and how we form the Passive.

# Retroalimentación

1) Passive voice in the Simple Present Tense:

President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose.

2) Passive voice in the Simple Past Tense:

He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008.

Formation of the passive-see below.

# Importante

Uses of the passive voice
USE

Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action: who or what is performing the action is not relevant, important or known:

My car was stolen.
The students were arrested
FORMATION
Subject + BE (in the correct tense) + Past Participle
MY CAR WAS STOLEN
THE STUDENTS WERE ARRESTED

In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my car was stolen. However, I do not know who did it.

If I want to focus on the person/thing that did the action, we use BY:

Imagen de Julie70 en Flickr. Licencia CC

This picture was painted by Van Gogh

# Ejercicio Resuelto

Example: Machine / repair > The machine is repaired.

> > 1) The car / wash

> > 2) Rice / grow in China

> > 3) The letters / send via first class post

> > 4) Cars / make in this factory.

> > 5) The document / write by a machine.

Change these sentences into passive ones in the Present Simple Tense as in the example.

# Retroalimentación

> > 1) The car / wash: The car is washed.

> > 2)Rice/grow in China: Rice is grown in China.

> > 3) The letters / send via first-class mail: The letters are sent via first-class mail..

> > 4) Cars/make in this factory: Cars are made in this factory.

> > 5) The documents / write: The documents are written by a machine.

# Comprueba lo aprendido

Read the paragraph below and identify all the passive voice forms in Simple Present and Simple Past you can find in the text about the history of snowboarding.

Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set into a flexible mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A. in the 1960s and the 1970s and became a Winter Olympic Sport in 1998.

Many crude versions of the snowboard were made up to 100 years before the first commercially manufactured model, but it is believed that the first snowboard was invented and manufactured in Utah beginning in the early 1970s. This claim was commemorated in 2007 by the United States mint when a snowboard theme was among the three semi-final designs of the Utah state quarter.
Adapted from Wikipedia.

Imagen de Joxernolan en wikipedia. Dominio público.

1) Rellenar huecos (1): JXUwMDJmJXUwMDE2JXUwMDEy Rellenar huecos (2): JXUwMDMxJXUwMDA3JXUwMDFkJXUwMDAzJXUwMDE5JXUwMDFiJXUwMDE3JXUwMDAx

2) Rellenar huecos (3): JXUwMDJmJXUwMDE2JXUwMDEy Rellenar huecos (4): JXUwMDNjJXUwMDAxJXUwMDEzJXUwMDEzJXUwMDA5JXUwMDAzJXUwMDFmJXUwMDE1JXUwMDAx

3) Rellenar huecos (5): JXUwMDJmJXUwMDEyJXUwMDE3JXUwMDE3 Rellenar huecos (6): JXUwMDM1JXUwMDBjJXUwMDA1JXUwMDAx Rellenar huecos (7): JXUwMDJkJXUwMDA1

4) Rellenar huecos (8): JXUwMDMxJXUwMDFh Rellenar huecos (9): JXUwMDNhJXUwMDA3JXUwMDA5JXUwMDA1JXUwMDBjJXUwMDEzJXUwMDEzJXUwMDAx

5) Rellenar huecos (10): JXUwMDJmJXUwMDE2JXUwMDEy Rellenar huecos (11): JXUwMDMxJXUwMDA3JXUwMDE4JXUwMDEzJXUwMDBiJXUwMDFhJXUwMDExJXUwMDAx Rellenar huecos (12): JXUwMDM5JXUwMDBmJXUwMDBh Rellenar huecos (13): JXUwMDM1JXUwMDBjJXUwMDBmJXUwMDFiJXUwMDEzJXUwMDA3JXUwMDAyJXUwMDE3JXUwMDAxJXUw MDA3JXUwMDE3JXUwMDAx

6) Rellenar huecos (14): JXUwMDJmJXUwMDE2JXUwMDEy Rellenar huecos (15): JXUwMDNiJXUwMDBjJXUwMDAyJXUwMDAwJXUwMDA4JXUwMDA4JXUwMDAyJXUwMDFkJXUwMDEzJXUw MDE1JXUwMDExJXUwMDAx

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# Para saber más

Learn here about the passive voice with explanations and examples in Spanish.