Passive Voice
Autor: Teacher Egislaine | Publicado: 2008-09-19T15:52:00-07:00

Quando dizemos “Katy plays the piano” (Katy toca piano), fica evidente a existência da voz ativa, ou seja, o sujeito está realizando a ação. A voz passiva ou passive voice é justamente o contrário disso, em outras palavras, é quando o sujeito recebe a ação. No nosso exemplo, na voz passiva ficaria “The piano is played”. Note que nós omitimos o sujeito. Por quê? Porque essa é justamente uma das principais características da passive voice: a ação é sempre mais importante que o sujeito, em alguns casos o sujeito nem mesmo é conhecido. Exemplo: Na frase “América was discovered in 1492.” (A América foi descoberta em 1492), estamos preocupados em ressaltar o descobrimento, e não quem descobriu a América. Para transformarmos uma oração na voz ativa para a voz passiva, basta colocarmos o verbo “to be” no mesmo tempo verbal em que estiver o verbo principal, colocado sempre no particípio:Sujeito + forma do verbo "to be" (no mesmo tempo verbal) + past participleExemplo: Para passar a frase “They will write that letter.” (Eles escreverão aquela carta) para a voz passiva, ficaria: That letter (Sujeito) will be (Verbo “to be”) written (past participle) by them. (Aquela carta será escrita por eles.) Tempo verbalVoz ativaVoz passivaSimple presentTake/takesIs/are takenSimple pastTookWas/were takenPresent ContinuousAm/is/are takingAm/is/are being takenPast continuousWas/were takingWas/were being takenSimple FutureWill takeWill be takenSimple conditionalWould takeWould be takenPresent perfectHave/has takenHave/has been takenPast perfectHad takenHad been takenModal auxiliaryCan/could/must/etc...Modal+be+past.part.Exemplos:Voz ativaVoz passivaMy father is a builder. He builds the house.The house is built (by my father).My father built the house.The house was built.My father is building the house.The house is being built.My father was building the house.The house was being built.My father will build the house.The house will be built.My father would build the house.The house would be built.My father has built the house.The house has been built.My father had built the house.The house had been built.My father could build the house.The house could be built.Compare estes outros exemplos:Somebody cleans this room everyday.This room is cleaned everyday.Martin washed his car yesterday.His car was washed yesterday.The maid will do the dishes later.The dishes will be done later.The room looks nice. Somebody has put it away.It has been put away.The room looked nice. Somebody had put it away.It had been put away.She is making a cornmeal cake now.The cornmeal cake is being made now.She was making the cornmeal cake when I arrived.The cornmeal cake was being made when I arrived.Outros exemplos:Voz ativa: Kevin washed the car. (Kevin lavou o carro.) Voz passiva: The car was washed. (O carro foi lavado.) Voz ativa: Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil in 1500. (Pedro Álvares Cabral descobriu o Brasil em 1500.) Voz passiva: Brazil was discovered in 1500. (O Brasil foi descoberto em 1500.) Voz ativa: Somebody cleans this room everyday. (Alguém limpa esta sala diariamente.) Voz passive:This room is cleaned everyday. (Esta sala é limpa diariamente.)