The Passive Voice is formed by: Subject + form of to be + Past Participle.
Example: A letter was written.
The Passive Voice is formed by: Subject + form of to be + Past Participle.
Example: A letter was written.
Note the differences between Dutch and English:
| Dutch | English | ||
| o.t.t. | Het boek wordt gelezen | present simple | The book is read |
| o.v.t. | Het boek werd gelezen | past simple | The book was read |
| v.t.t. | Het boek is gelezen | present perfect | The book has been read |
| v.v.t. | Het boek was gelezen | past perfect | The book had been read |
Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action.
It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action.
Example:
My bike was stolen.
Fact: my bike was stolen.
I do not know, however, who did it.
Sometimes the passive voice is more polite than the active voice:
Example:
A mistake was made.
The fact is that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone
Click on the links to do the exercises by making passive sentences.