Below are explanations for the two Passive Samples:

Passives from The Brothers Karamazov

It came to pass that, settling permanently in Paris the child was forgotten by him, too, especially when the Revolution of February broke out, making an impression on his mind that he remembered all the rest of his life.

As the interactive exercise instructs, the first step is to highlight any words that could be a passive construction:

It came to pass that, settling permanently in Paris the child was forgotten by him, too, especially when the Revolution of February broke out, making an impression on his mind that he remembered all the rest of his life.

There appears to be only one passive in this sentence:

1. WAS FORGOTTEN: past + BE + [-en] + FORGET - past passive - HIM (HE) is the actor; CHILD is the object

Challenge Sample from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

When Dorothy was standing in the doorway, nothing could be seen but the great gray prairie on every side. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the tops of the long blades had been baked by the sun for decades, until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere.

Again, the first step is to highlight any words that might be a passive construction:

When Dorothy was standing in the doorway, nothing could be seen but the great gray prairie on every side. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the tops of the long blades had been baked by the sun for decades, until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere.

For this sample, there appears to be only one passive in this passage:

1. HAD BEEN BAKED: past + HAVE + [-en] + BE + [-en] + BAKE - past perfect passive - SUN is the actor; TOPS OF THE LONG BLADES is the object

Tips to Keep in Mind

The KEY MARKER for passive constructions is always BE + [-en]. Remember that the past participle inflection can either be [-en] or [-ed]. Don't be fooled be the [-ed] inflection. Be sure to compare (and understand the difference in) the three Main Verb Phrases in the second sentence above: WAS STANDING, HAD BAKED, HAD BEEN BAKED. If you see a BE auxiliary, and you don't see [-ing] inflected on the next verb, then you need to suspect that it is a passive construction. Finally, technically, the infinitive phrase TO BE SEEN is also a passive (but it's NOT a main verb phrase). As we will discuss in non-finite verb phrases, every non-finite verb (like the infinitive above) can retain its predicate, including passive construction.

If you have questions about these sample analyses, please contact your instructor or start a conversation in your work group.