Active Voice, Passive Voice

The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb:
Passive - subject – verb – object
Fish are eaten by cats.
The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb:
active - subject – verb – object –
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active : Everybody drinks water
passive - Water is drunk by everybody

Passive Voice
The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the "normal" voice. But sometimes we need the passive voice. In this lesson we look at how to construct the passive voice, when to use it and how to conjugate it.
Construction of the Passive Voice
The structure of the passive voice is very simple:
subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)
The main verb is always in its past participle form.

Look at these examples:
subject auxiliary verb (to be) main verb (past participle)
1-Water is drunk by everyone
.2-100 people are employed by this company.
3-I am paid in euro.
4-We are not paid in dollars. 5-Are they paid in yen?

Use of the Passive Voice
We use the passive when:
1-we want to make the active object more important
2- we do not know the active subject
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subject verb object
give importance to active object
(President Kennedy) President Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald
.active subject unknown : My wallet has been stolen.
Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are eaten by cats).

Conjugation for the Passive Voice
We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle form and the auxiliary verb is always be. To form the required tense, we conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:
Look at this sentence:
1- He was killed with a gun.
Normally we use by to introduce the passive object. But the gun is not the active subject. The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun.
In the active voice, it would be: Somebody killed him with a gun. The gun is the instrument. Somebody is the "agent" or "doer".
present simple: It is made
present continuous: It is being made
present perfect: It has been made

Look at this sentence:
1- He was killed with a gun.
Normally we use by to introduce the passive object. But the gun is not the active subject.
The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun. In the active voice, it would be: Somebody killed him with a gun. The gun is the instrument. Somebody is the "agent" or "doer