Can I test some of you, please? I'll write some active voice sentences and can you tell me what the passive is?

1) Juanita watches films. Films are watched by Juanita

2) Mildred ate the cake. Cake is eaten by Mildred

3) Inigo Montoya rescued the princess.  The princess is rescued by Inigo Montaya

The subjects: Juanita, Mildred are doing something, (active)

The subjects: Films, Cake and the princess aren't doing anything, (passive)

Or at least that's how I understand it!

My brain is melted by Rawky

Rawky melts my brain.

Yeah, that's what i figured they would be. But couldn't No 3 also be the Simple Past?

Rawks... it's Sunday.. bugger off and stop melting my brain.  

It's happening now, not in the past, past would be was rescued. 

Okay. It's 'was' and 'is' that's throwing me off sometimes. I have to cover both Past Simple Passive and Present Simple Passive, so either would work as long as it's used in the right context?

The cake was eaten

The cake is eaten

The cake will be eaten

I've just had the best part of a packet of jaffa cakes.

I blame all this cake talk.

And you never passed em round

I've just had the best part of a packet of jaffa cakes.

I blame all this cake talk.

s'ok - it was a twin pack - still have some left  - dig in!

Maybe add being to emphasise the present?

When I taught English I just used to give them handouts...and think "worrever".

Rawks... it's Sunday.. bugger off and stop melting my brain.  

My brain is melted by Rawky

Rawky melts my brain.

I've just had the best part of a packet of jaffa cakes.

I blame all this cake talk.

Eurgh!

Tomorrow I have to teach the passive voice to a multilingual group: Spanish, French, and Russian.

The trouble is, I've never been that great at understanding it myself. Or rather, the idea of trying to explain it is frustrating me. I hate explaining things.

Anywho. I get the general gist. For example:

Andy plays basketball - is the active voice at it's saying that the subject, Andy, is actively doing something.

Basketball is played by Andy - is the passive voice. Basketball is now the subject but it's not doing anything.

And that's as far as my explanations can go. They're multilingual so using technical terms isn't going to help. Do you think that would work as an example? Of course I can more examples, such as asking each student what sport they play, write it in the active voice and get them to change it to passive...

... wait a minute? Have I already just helped myself?

I tried doing some basic passive online tests, and didn't do very well

Can I test some of you, please? I'll write some active voice sentences and can you tell me what the passive is?

1) Juanita watches films.

2) Mildred ate the cake.

3) Inigo Montoya rescued the princess. 

When I taught English I just used to give them handouts...and think "worrever".

Who ate all the pies?

All the pies have been eaten.

Eaten have all the pies been.

May the force be with you.

Did not and no one saw me, so there.

Okay. It's 'was' and 'is' that's throwing me off sometimes. I have to cover both Past Simple Passive and Present Simple Passive, so either would work as long as it's used in the right context?

It's happening now, not in the past, past would be was rescued. 

P.S. I'm not an English teacher!

When I taught English I just used to give them handouts...and think "worrever".

1) Juanita watches films.

2) Mildred ate the cake.

3) Inigo Montoya rescued the princess. 

So how did you get on Rawky?

Aha! So we can blame the current generation's poor linguistic and grammatical skills on you then.

It was fine. Turns out most of them were aware of the passive voice anyway.