Hi, in today’s lesson we are learning about passive infinitives.
In English, most verbs have an active infinitive form,
to read, to be, to eat, to sleep.
They can be with or without to.
And most verbs also have a passive infinitive form.
A passive infinitive is :
to be ( with or without to) + past participle.
So for example,
to be read, to be eaten, to be written
For example.
The exam is to be marked by a teacher.
Here we have to be with the past participle of mark which is a regular verb, so simply marked.
So why do we use the passive infinitive?
So as with all passives, we are focussing on the receiver of the action.
Here the exam is the thing receiving the action, the marking.
The performer of the action, here, the teacher is identified by “by”
but as with all passives sometimes this is not stated.
We use the passive infinitive here because the person doing the action is
either not important to us or we want to emphasise the receiver of the action, here the exam.
If we focus on the person or thing doing the action, we use the active infinitive.
So, let’s change this sentence to use an active infinitive.
The teacher is to mark the exam.
This is not a passive because the teacher is doing the action.
Let’s compare some sentences using active and passive infinitives.
So here is a sentence with an active infinitive.
He’s trying to finish the work soon. He expects to finish most of it before the weekend.
Here he is doing the action of finishing the work. It is an active verb.
Now let’s look at the same sentence with a passive infinitive.
He’s trying to finish the work soon. He expects most of it to be finished before the weekend.
Whereas here the work is receiving the action, we don’t know who is going to do the work.
or
Let's look at an active infinitive sentence.
The police are certain to catch the burglar soon.
Here the police are doing the action of catching the burglar.
And if we put that in a passive infinitive form.
We could say: The police are certain that the burglar will be caught soon.
Here the burglar is receiving the action. We don’t know who will catch the burglar.
Let’s look at another example.
Here is an active infinitive sentence.
I didn’t want to drive when I was abroad, so I got a taxi.
You are doing the action of driving.
and to change this sentence to a passive infinitive.
You could say:
I like to be driven by a taxi driver when I’m abroad.
We put not before passive infinitives to form negatives.
They didn’t invite us. It was strange not to be invited and not not to be not invited.
So, many nots there!
After there is, there are
Let’s look at 2 sentences:
Come on! There’s work to do. or
Come on! There’s work to be done.
So here what is the difference between the two sentences?
One's an active infinitive, one's a passive infinitive.
Well, the difference between the two infinitive forms is often very small
but when we the passive infinitive we are talking about some form of obligation.
Now, let’s look at adjectives with passive infinitives.
You may also see adjectives used in a passive infinitive construction,
such as fit, ready, eager, and easy.
Adjectives are used with passive infinitives to improve clarity.
Let’s look at an example with ready.
If we say, "The lamb is ready to eat."
We think we are referring to the actual animal eating.
Whereas if we say, “The lamb is ready to be eaten."
The lamb is receiving the action and we are eating the lamb.
Finally, let’s look at double passives
Double passives are sentences that contain two connected passive verbs,
So, for example, you could say:
"The seasonal work was needed to be done by temporary employees."
So here is the first passive, was needed and the second passive is a passive infinitive, to be done.
To turn this into a sentence with an active infinitive, you can add a subject and rearrange,
to make something such as, "The company needed temporary employees to do the seasonal work."
So now it’s your turn:
Change these sentences into sentences with passive infinitives.
1. Nobody’s going to steal your books from this room.
Your books aren’t going................. from this room.
to be stolen. Here, the passive infinitive, to be plus the past participle.
2. The organisers are asked to treat the fans with more consideration.
The fans wanted…....................................with more consideration.
to be treated
3. The police were not likely to reveal the answer to that mystery anytime soon.
The answer to that mystery was not likely ..................... anytime soon.
You know what to do, write your answer down below and I promise to give you feedback
on what you write.
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