PASSIVES

If you take a look at the pass and you realized of all the great things you have done, you will be amazed and will be proud of yourself. 

My biggest achievements

The greatest achievement I have accomplished so far is to complete my high school. It took me 6 years to finish but, it was a great experience because I met my second family there and I do not regret of spending the whole time being there. When I finished, I did not know what to expect or do. I had to look for my own and get a job to keep studying in an University here in Costa Rica. Thought it was a complete challenge, I was able to do it and I feel very proud of myself.

Passives

Passive Form was confusing at the beginning when I started my English classes a few years ago so I tried to look a way to understand better and practice it.

First of all, it´s better to clarify what is the Active Form because we always use it even when we do not realize of it. On this Form the thing doing the action is the subject  and the one receiving the action is the object. 

[Thing doing action] + [verb] + [thing receiving action] 

For example:

The professor teaches the students.

The Passive Form is when you think the object is more important than the subject, so in this case it will do the action. We usually use it when we do not know what/who the object is.

[Thing receiving action] + [be] + [past participle of verb] + [by] + [thing doing action] 

For example:

The students are taught by the professor.

Note: It´s very important to know that in Passive Form the verb chances, as you can see in the following list:

Active / Passive Overview

	Active	Passive
Simple Present	Once a week, Tom cleans the house.	Once a week, the house is cleaned by Tom.
Present Continuous	Right now, Sarah is writing the letter.	Right now, the letter is being written by Sarah.
Simple Past	Sam repaired the car.	The car was repaired by Sam.
Past Continuous	The salesman was helping the customer when the thief came into the store.	The customer was being helped by the salesman when the thief came into the store.
Present Perfect	Many tourists have visited that castle.	That castle has been visited by many tourists.
Present Perfect Continuous	Recently, John has been doing the work.	Recently, the work has been being doneby John.
Past Perfect	George had repaired many cars before he received his mechanic's license.	Many cars had been repaired by George before he received his mechanic's license.
Past Perfect Continuous	Chef Jones had been preparing the restaurant's fantastic dinners for two years before he moved to Paris.	The restaurant's fantastic dinners had been being prepared by Chef Jones for two years before he moved to Paris.
Simple Future will	Someone will finish the work by 5:00 PM.	The work will be finished by 5:00 PM.
Simple Future be going to	Sally is going to make a beautiful dinner tonight.	A beautiful dinner is going to be made by Sally tonight.
Future Continuous will	At 8:00 PM tonight, John will be washing the dishes.	At 8:00 PM tonight, the dishes will be being washed by John.
Future Continuous be going to	At 8:00 PM tonight, John is going to be washing the dishes.	At 8:00 PM tonight, the dishes are going to be being washed by John.
Future Perfect will	They will have completed the project before the deadline.	The project will have been completed before the deadline.
Future Perfect be going to	They are going to have completed the project before the deadline.	The project is going to have been completed before the deadline.
Future Perfect Continuous will	The famous artist will have been painting the mural for over six months by the time it is finished.	The mural will have been being painted by the famous artist for over six months by the time it is finished.
Future Perfect Continuous be going to	The famous artist is going to have been painting the mural for over six months by the time it is finished.	The mural is going to have been being painted by the famous artist for over six months by the time it is finished.
Used to	Jerry used to pay the bills.	The bills used to be paid by Jerry.
Would Always	My mother would always make the pies.	The pies would always be made by my mother.
Future in the Past Would	I knew John would finish the work by 5:00 PM.	I knew the work would be finished by 5:00 PM.
Future in the Past Was Going to	I thought Sally was going to make a beautiful dinner tonight.	I thought a beautiful dinner was going to be made by Sally tonight.

Prepositions

  To tell all the stories is very important to take into account all the prepositions and use them well. For example, I was confused a lot of time with "on" and "in".

What is the difference between "I´m on the bus" and "I´m in the car"? This is something that might be confusing for some people.

The reason is because we use "on" when you are talking about a public transportation and "in" when we are not. It is a little detail but, you need to be careful when you are trying to describe a place or explain something. And something that really helped me was paying attention to the letters song, movies and a list full of prepositions.

The following game is very helpful to improve your knowledge about this topic:

http://www.manythings.org/vocabulary/games/k/words.php?f=prepositions