The passive

Objective & content

This grammar sheet teaches the passive in the present simple (is made, are grown) and the past simple (was built, were designed), with by + the person who does the action, and questions (Was it built ...?). Pupils read the audio guide of a chocolate museum, find the passive verbs and read the rule, given in a box. By the end, they can say how things are made, and who made, built, wrote or invented them.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the audio guide, room by room, with pictures of a cocoa pod, chocolate and the museum: cocoa trees are grown in hot countries like Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, the beans are dried in the sun, then roasted and crushed at the factory, and in the last room an old machine was built in 1925 and the wrappers were designed by local artists. Pupils find six missing verbs in sentences from the audio guide. Then they read the rule, given in a box in short lines with the key words in bold: is / are and was / were + the third form, one thing or more than one, by + the person, questions and six third forms. Page 2 has eight sentences where the time word and the subject decide the right form (three choices each), six verbs in brackets to write in the passive, five active sentences to write again in the passive in the same tense, and three sentences to turn into questions. Page 3 is a quiz of ten real facts about famous books, buildings, discoveries and inventions (Romeo and Juliet, the Eiffel Tower, penicillin, Tintin): pupils write the verb in the passive and tick the right answer. Then they write four sentences about how their favourite food is made. Every exercise opens with a worked example, except the writing task.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Show a bar of chocolate and ask "What is chocolate made from?"; write is made on the board.
2. (10 min) Read the audio guide aloud; pupils find the missing verbs.
3. (5 min) Read the rule in the box with the class; pupils find a present and a past passive in the audio guide.
4. (15 min) Page 2: pupils tick the right form, write the verbs in the passive, change the active sentences and make the questions.
5. (10 min) Page 3: the quiz in pairs, then the favourite food.
6. (5 min) Check with the answer key on pages 4 and 5.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils read the audio guide aloud, one pupil per room, before the tasks.

[A] Pupils read their food sentences to a partner, who guesses the food.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of pages 1 to 3 per pupil. Pages 4 and 5 are the answer key and teacher notes, with the ten quiz verbs: keep them. Pupils need be in the present and the past, the third forms of common verbs, and the words for food. To take it further, groups write a quiz of their own with five passive questions about famous books, buildings or inventions, check every fact and swap it with another group.