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Modals + be + p.p You must serve dinner. Dinner must be
served…

The passive is used:
 When the agent (the person who does the action) is unknown,
unimportant, obvious from the context. Ex.: The door had been
locked (we don’t know who locked the door – unknown agent)
 When we are interested more in the action than the agent, such
as in news reports, formal notices, instructions, processes,
headlines, advertisements etc. Ex.: The whole area was
evacuated (news report). Breakfast is served from 6 pm to
10pm. (formal notice)
 To make statements more formal or polite. Ex.: My new dress
has been ruined (more polite than saying ‘You ruined my
dress’)
 To put emphasis on the agent. Ex.: The Pyramids were built by
the ancient Egyptians.

Changing from Active into Passive

 The object of the active verb becomes the subject in the new
sentence. The active verb changes into a passive form and the
subject of the active verb becomes the agent which is either
introduced with ‘by’ or is omitted. Ex.: Active: The mayor
opened the new school (object) – Passive: The new school
(subject) was opened by the mayor (the agent).
 The passive can be used only with transitive verbs (verbs
which take an object such as give, write, take, open etc.).
Verbs such as happen, sleep, come, go, seem etc are not used
in the passive.
 In the passive we use by+ agent to say who or what did the
action. We use with + instrument or material to say what the

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