Passive Voice - Past Perfect Tense

 

Sentences are written in the Past Perfect tense passive voice when we want to focus on the receiver of the action: when we want to talk about what or whom the doer of the action had acted upon.

And since we shift the focus to the object of the verb from the subject (the doer of the action), the object becomes the subject, and the subject (doer) becomes an irrelevant or less important entity in a sentence, and therefore; it is usually not mentioned in the sentence.

Active: Some people had followed her to the office.
Passive: She had been followed to the office (by some people).

Active: The teacher had thrown us out of the class.
Passive: We had been thrown out of the class (by the teacher).

Active: They had copied all my answers.
Passive: All my answers had been copied (by them).

Active: Someone had stolen my car before I reached home.
Passive: My car had been stolen (by someone) before I reached home.

Active: The police had arrested him.
Passive: He had been arrested (by the police).

Active: His parents had warned him before he committed the crime.
Passive: He had been warned (by his parents) before he did the crime.

Active: He had not invited me to the party.
Passive: I had not been invited to the party (by him).

Active: Sam hadn’t helped us at all.
Passive: We hadn’t been helped at all (by Sam).

Positive : The computer had been repaired when I met the technician.

Question : Had the computer been repaired when you met the technician ?

Negative: The computer had not been repaired when I met the technician.

Negative Question : Hadn’t the computer been repaired when you met the technician.

Positive : They had been advised by the manager.

Question : Had they been advised by the manager ?

Negative : They had not been advised by the manager.

Negative Question : Hadn’t they been advised by the manager. ?