Unit 10
Lesson 2
Student’s Book page 77
GRAMMAR
GRAMMAR: The Past Simple Passive
● We use the Past Simple Passive when an action or idea is more important than the person or thing that did or imagined it (the agent). In such cases, we either don’t know, or are not interested in the identity of the agent.
● We also use the Past Simple Passive to describe a process, where, again, we either don’t know or are not interested in who carried out the process.
● We form the Past Simple Passive with
subject + was / were + the past participle.
● We form the negative of the Past Simple Passive with
subject + was / were + not + the past participle of the verb. Was / were + not are usually contracted to wasn’t / weren’t.
● We form questions in the Past Simple Passive by changing the order of the words. We may also use a question word.
● When it is important to mention the person or thing that did the action, we use by.