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# passive

«passive» in Mova's school dictionary: **letting things happen to you without acting, reacting or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (passive; adverb: passively; noun: passivity); noun (the passive, grammar)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Passive means letting things happen to you without acting, reacting or taking part: «a passive audience». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#m1)

2) (grammar) The passive, or passive voice, is a way of making a sentence where the thing that something is done to comes first: «The window was broken by Sam», instead of the active «Sam broke the window». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#m2)

3) Passive smoking means breathing in smoke from other people's cigarettes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#m3)

4) (science) Passive means working without extra power or effort, like a «passive house» that stays warm with no heaters. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In English lessons (SATs grammar), pupils learn to change active sentences into passive ones; the passive uses «be» + past participle (was eaten, is made, were found) and is common in science reports: «The water was heated». It hides or lowers the doer: «Mistakes were made». In PSHE, being passive is the opposite of standing up for yourself (being assertive). Phrases: «passive voice», «passive smoking», «passive-aggressive» (being unkind in a hidden way).

### examples

- «The cake was eaten by the dog» is in the passive. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#x1)
- Rewrite the sentence in the passive voice. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#x2)
- In science reports we write «The water was heated». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#x3)
- Don't just be passive — join in the discussion! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#x4)
- Passive smoking can harm children's lungs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#x5)
- She gave a passive-aggressive smile and said «Fine». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#x6)
- Watching TV is passive; building a model is active. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/#x7)

### note

Opposite: «active». The passive is made with a form of «be» + past participle: «is cleaned», «was taken», «will be sent»; the doer can be added with «by». Trap: a sentence in the past tense is not automatically passive: «He ate the cake» is active, «The cake was eaten» is passive.

### In the corpora

- [In the passive voice the subject receives the action: "The cake was eaten by the dog."](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/6/)
- [The passive can also hide who is responsible, as in "Mistakes were made."](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/11/)
- [When you rewrite a sentence in the passive, keep the same tense: past stays past.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/52-sats-grammar-punctuation-and-spelling-paper/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «passive» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/passive/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.