We make all the furniture you can see in our shop.

Level: PET (B1)

1. We make all the furniture you can see in our shop.

·          Active

·          Passive

·         The sentence is active: ''we make the furniture'' (not ''the furniture is made''.)

2. Our customers are sent brochures once a year.

·          Active

·          Passive

·         The verb ''is sent'' is in the passive form. (The active form would be ''customers send...'')

3. What happened to you last night?

·          Active

·          Passive

·         The sentence is in the active form: something happened to you - and ''something'' is the subject of the verb.

4. A lot of things were happening when I left the party.

·          Active

·          Passive

·         The subject is in the active form - things (subject of the verb) were happening. The verb ''happen'' cannot be put into the passive form.

5. A disco is held in the youth club every Saturday night.

·          Active

·          Passive

·         ''Disco'' is the object of the verb ''hold''. Often, we use passives when we don't know (or don't care) who the agent is. In this example, we don't know which person holds the disco - and it's not important to know the name of the person.

6. Have you ever been arrested?

·          Active

·          Passive

·         The sentence is passive because ''you'' are arrested by someone else. We often use the passive form when the agent is obvious. In this case, it's obvious that the police arrest (so we don't need to include ''by the police'' at the end of the sentence).

7. Have you ever been to the USA?

·          Active

·          Passive

·         Be careful with the verb ''to be''. To make the passive form, you need the verb ''to be'' and the past participle. Here the sentence is active, and it means ''have you ever visited the USA?''

8. Rooms in the hotel are cleaned once a day.

·          Active

·          Passive

·         We often use the passive when we don't want to say who does an action. The focus of the sentence is on the action - not on the person.

9. Reservations can be made via our website.

·          Active

·          Passive

·         Remember: you can also form passives with modal verbs. (''Can be made'', ''will be made'', ''should be made'', ''must be made'', etc.)

10. He was made to do the entrance exam, even if he wasn't ready.

·          Active

·          Passive

·         Be careful of the verb ''make'' (meaning ''oblige someone''.) In the active form, you ''make someone do something''. In the passive form, you ''are made to do something'' (with the ''to do'' infinitive.)