THE PASSIVE (2): TENSES
A
Other tenses
The
examples below show how to form the passive with other tenses. Present
continuous passive: am being, is being, or
are being + past participle:
I am being asked to do a lot of extra work at the moment. I can
assure you that your complaint is being
dealt with.
Simple past passive: was or were + the past
participle:
Our company was
founded in 1848.
Most of the senior managers were fired after the takeover.
Note the passive form be born:
A When were you
born? ะ I was born in 1968.
Past continuous passive: was being or were being + the past participle:
I couldn't use the company
car yesterday because it was being
serviced. We only noticed the mistakes when the brochures were being printed.
Present perfect passive: has been or have been +
the past participle: A design fault has been found on some of our washing
machines. All of the machines have been
recalled.
Past perfect passive: had been +
the past participle:
They faxed us to say that the shipment had been delayed..
Future passive: will be or going to be + the past participle:
The shipment is going to be delayed. It will be delivered next Tuesday.
ะ Personal
or impersonal?
The passive is also often used in business correspondence,
because it is less personal than the active. Compare:
Peter Jason, who opens our post at this
branch, received your letter
yesterday. He
has forwarded it to Head Office, (ACTIVE)
Thank you for your letter which was received at this branch yesterday.
It has been forwarded to Head
Office, as complaints are dealt with there.
(PASSIVE)
ะก Changes
The
present perfect passive is often used when we are describing changes that have
taken place, and we are more interested in the changes than who has made them:
The factory is completely different. The
whole place has been modernized and
computerized, and a lot of people have been made redundant.
