--- title: Active and passive voice, modal verbs — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Active and passive voice, modal verbs», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In the active voice the doer comes first: "The cat chased the mouse." In the passive voice the thing the action happens to comes fir --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Active and passive voice, modal verbs # Active and passive voice, modal verbs Lesson 32 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/0/) — In the active voice the doer comes first: "The cat chased the mouse." In the passive voice the thing the action happens to comes first: "The mouse was chased by the cat." - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/1/) — The passive is built from a form of "be" plus a past form like chased, eaten or broken, and the doer can be added with "by", or left out altogether. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/2/) — Leaving the doer out is handy and sometimes sneaky: a science report says "The water was heated" because who did it doesn't matter, but when Mum says "The biscuits have been eaten", every child in the kitchen goes quiet. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/3/) — Modal verbs such as can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should and must sit in front of another verb and change how sure, how able or how bossy a sentence is: "You must tidy up" orders, "You could tidy up" gently suggests. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/4/) — Dialects have their own forms: Irish English "The window got broke" and Scots "Ye cannae dae that" ("cannae" is can't, "dae" is do) are real grammar of real places; in formal writing they become "The window was broken" and "You can't do that". - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/5/) — In the active voice the subject does the action: "The dog ate the cake." - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/6/) — In the passive voice the subject receives the action: "The cake was eaten by the dog." - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/7/) — The passive uses a form of "be" (is, was, were, has been) plus a past participle such as eaten, thrown or broken. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/9/) — In a passive sentence the doer can be added with "by ..." or left out completely: "The window was broken." - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/11/) — The passive can also hide who is responsible, as in "Mistakes were made." - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/12/) — "Got" passives like "The window got broke" are informal or dialect; Standard English writes "The window was broken" or, less formally, "got broken". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/13/) — Modal verbs (can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must) help a main verb and show certainty, ability, permission or duty. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/14/) — "Will" sounds sure, "might" sounds unsure; "must" is strong and bossy, "could" is gentle and polite. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/15/) — In rules and formal notices "shall" works like "must": "Bins shall be put out on Tuesday." - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/16/) — "Could have" ("could've") plus a past form, as in "he could have helped", means he was able to but didn't. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/17/) — "Can I?" asks if you are able or allowed; "May I?" asks permission more politely and formally. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/18/) — In Scotland "cannae" means can't, "dinnae" means don't, and "wee" means little. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/19/) — Very formal writing says "by whom?"; in everyday talk "by who?" is normal. - ← previous: [Tense consistency and verb forms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms/) - next →: [Commas: lists, clauses and clarity](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)