Active / Passive Verb Forms

Sentences can be active or passive. Therefore, tenses also have "active

forms" and "passive forms." You must learn to recognize the difference to
successfully speak English.

Active Form

In active sentences, the thing doing the action is the subject of the sentence
and the thing receiving the action is the object. Most sentences are active.

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

Examples:

Passive Form

In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the
sentence and the thing doing the action is optionally included near the end of
the sentence. You can use the passive form if you think that the thing
receiving the action is more important or should be emphasized. You can also
use the passive form if you do not know who is doing the action or if you do
not want to mention who is doing the action.

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

Examples:
Active / Passive Overview

Active Passive

Simple Once a week, Once a week, the house is

Present Tom cleans the house. cleaned by Tom.

Present Right now, Sarah is Right now, the letter is being

Continuous writing the letter. written by Sarah.

Simple Past Sam repaired the car. The car was repaired by
Sam.

Past The salesman was The customer was being

Continuous helping the customer when helped by the salesman when
the thief came into the store. the thief came into the store.

Present Many tourists have That castle has been

Perfect visited that castle. visited by many tourists.

Present Recently, John has been Recently, the work has been
Perfect doing the work. being done by John.
Continuous

Past Perfect George had repaired many Many cars had been
cars before he received his repaired by George before he
mechanic's license. received his mechanic's
license.

Past Perfect Chef Jones had been The restaurant's fantastic

Continuous preparing the restaurant's dinners had been being
fantastic dinners for two prepared by Chef Jones for
 years before he moved to two years before he moved to
Paris. Paris.

Simple Someone will finish the The work will be finished by

Future work by 5:00 PM. 5:00 PM.
WILL

Simple Sally is going to make a A beautiful dinner is going to

Future beautiful dinner tonight. be made by Sally tonight.
BE GOING TO

Future At 8:00 PM tonight, John will At 8:00 PM tonight, the

Continuous be washingthe dishes. dishes will be being
WILL washed by John.

Future At 8:00 PM tonight, John is At 8:00 PM tonight, the

Continuous going to be washing the dishes are going to be being
BE GOING TO dishes. washed by John.

Future They will have The project will have been

Perfect completed the project completed before the
WILL before the deadline. deadline.

Future They are going to have The project is going to have

Perfect completed the project been completedbefore the
BE GOING TO before the deadline. deadline.

Future The famous artist will have The mural will have been
Perfect been paintingthe mural for being painted by the famous
Continuous over six months by the time artist for over six months by
WILL it is finished. the time it is finished.

Future The famous artist is going The mural is going to have

Perfect to have been painting the been being painted -----
Continuous mural for over six months by by the famous artist for over
BE GOING TO the time it is finished. 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 My mother would always The pies would always be
Always make the pies. made by my mother.

Future in the I knew John would I knew the work would be

Past finish the work by 5:00 PM. finished by 5:00 PM.
WOULD

Future in the I thought Sally was going to I thought a beautiful

Past make a beautiful dinner dinner was going to be
WAS GOING TO tonight. made by Sally tonight.

The Passive Voice

 Download this explanation in PDF here.
 See all my exercises about the passive here.

An active sentence like I drank two cups of coffee has the subject first
(the person or thing that does the verb), followed by the verb, and finally the
object (the person or thing that the action happens to).
So, in this example, the subject is 'I', the verb is 'drank' and the object is 'two
cups of coffee'.

But, we don't always need to make sentences this way. We might want to put
the object first, or perhaps we don't want to say who did something. This can
happen for lots of reasons (see the explanation further down the page). In this
case, we can use a passive, which puts the object first:

 Two cups of coffee were drunk (we can add 'by me' if we want, but it isn't
necessary).

How to make the Passive in English

We make the passive by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need
and then adding the past participle. For regular verbs, we make the past
participle by adding 'ed' to the infinitive. So play becomes played. Click here
to learn about irregular verbs.

Tense Active Passive

A cake is made (by

present simple I make a cake.
me).

present I am making a A cake is being

continuous cake. made (by me).

A cake was made (by

past simple I made a cake.
me).

I was making a A cake was being

past continuous
cake. made(by me).

I have made a A cake has been

present perfect
cake. made (by me).

pres. perf. I have been A cake has been

continuous making a cake. being made (by me).
 I had made a A cake had been
past perfect
cake. made(by me).

I will make a A cake will be

future simple
cake. made (by me).

I will have A cake will have been

future perfect
madea cake. made (by me).

Practise with these exercises

Verbs with two objects

Some verbs that have two objects can make two different active sentences, and
so two different passive sentences too:

Give

 Active: He gave me the book / He gave the book to me.

You can choose either of the two objects to be the subject of the passive
sentence.

 Passive: I was given the book (by him)/ The book was given to me (by
him).

Other verbs like this are: ask, offer, teach, tell, lend, promise, sell, throw.

Try an exercise about this here

The passive in subordinate clauses
You can make the passive in a subordinate clause that has a subject and a
normal conjugated verb. This is really the same as a normal passive.

 Active: I thought that Mary had kissed John.

 Passive: I thought that John had been kissed by Mary.

 Active: He knew that people had built the church in 1915.

 Passive: He knew that the church had been built in 1915.

You can also make the passive using a passive gerund or a passive infinitive in
the same place as a normal gerund or infinitive.

 The child loves being cuddled.

 She would like to be promoted.

Try an exercise about this here

When should we use the Passive?

1. When we want to change the focus of the sentence:
o The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. (We are more

interested in the painting than the artist in this sentence)

2. When who or what causes the action is unknown or
unimportant or obvious or 'people in general':
o He was arrested (obvious agent, the police).

o My bike has been stolen (unknown agent).

o The road is being repaired (unimportant agent).

o The form can be obtained from the post office (people in general).

3. In factual or scientific writing:

o The chemical is placed in a test tube and the data entered into the

computer.
4. In formal writing instead of using someone/ people/ they
(these can be used in speaking or informal writing):
 oThe brochure will be finished next month.
5. In order to put the new information at the end of the sentence
to improve style:
o Three books are used regularly in the class. The books were

written by Dr. Bell. ('Dr. Bell wrote the books' sound clumsy)
6. When the subject is very long:
o I was surprised by how well the students did in the test. (More

natural than: 'how well the students did in the test surprised me')

Passive Voice
Mice are eaten by cats.

Although the passive voice is less common than the active voice,
there are several good reasons to sometimes use the passive. On
this page we look at how to construct the passive voice and when
and why to use it. (For a basic explanation of the difference
between active and passive, please seevoice.)

How do we make the passive?

The basic structure of a passive clause is very simple:

subject + auxiliary verb + main verb + by + agent

be past participle

optional

The auxiliary be is conjugated in all tenses. The main verb is always

the past participle. The agent is the original "doer" of the action.

Look at some examples:

 main verb
subject auxiliary verb be past participle by

I am employed by Apple.

You will be woken at 6.

It will have been finished by then.

We have been notified by Head Office.

You are being transferred next week.

They will be paid.

Notice above↑:

 auxiliary be can be conjugated for all persons and tenses

 main verb is invariable: past participle
 if there is an agent (Apple, Head Office), it is introduced by by

Agentless passive

The subject of an active sentence "does" the action. In a passive

sentence, we express the doer (or agent) through a by phrase (the
long passive) or, very often, we remove it completely (the short
passive). In the following example, the agent is "the Allies":

active The Allies firebombed Dresden.

passive long Dresden was firebombed by the Allies.

short Dresden was firebombed.

The short passive is also known as the "agentless passive". Soon

you will see how useful it can be.

Negatives and questions

The table below shows examples of the passive with negative

sentences, question sentences and negative-question sentences:

main
verb
auxiliar past
subjec y verb participl
t be e

You are no paid to watch

- t YouTube.

They wil neve be employed by us.

l r
 main
verb
auxiliar past
subjec y verb participl
t be e

Are they cleaned regularly?

?

Has your been stolen?

wallet

Is he no notified immediatel
- t y?
?
Will they not be dismissed
?

Haven' they been forgotten

t ?

Notice above↑:

 position of auxiliary be or first auxiliary for questions

 possible positions of not, n't, never to create negation
Use of the passive

When and why do we use passive voice?

There are several times when the passive voice is useful, and
usually the decision has to do with the "doer" (agent) or the
"receiver" of the action. For example, we use the passive when:

1. we want to emphasize the receiver of the action:

 President Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.

cf: Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy.

2. we don't know who did the action (the agent):

 My wallet has been stolen.

cf: Somebody has stolen my wallet.

3. we think the agent is not important or interesting:

 Our house is being painted.

cf: XYZ Company is painting our house.

4. the agent is obvious:

 I am paid weekly.
cf: My company pays me weekly.

5. we are making general statements or announcements:

 Passengers are reminded to fasten their seatbelts.

cf: The Captain reminds passengers to fasten their seatbelts.

6. the agent is everyone:

 The emergency services can be called by dialling 999.

cf: The public can call the emergency services by dialling 999.

7. we are writing formal or scientific texts:

 Potassium was added and mixed in. The solution was heated
to 80°C and then allowed to cool.
cf: The technician added potassium and mixed it in. The
technician heated the solution to 80°C and then allowed it to
cool.
8. we want to avoid responsibility for our own actions (typically
found in government reports):

 Mistakes were made and unfortunately never rectified.

cf: The Prime Minister made mistakes and unfortunately never
rectified them.
Look at this sentence:

 He was killed with a gun.

Normally we use by to introduce the agent. But the gun is not

the original doer of the action. The gun did not kill him. He

Active and Passive

was killed by

Examples
The table below shows example sentences in active and passive
voice for the basic tenses as well as various other verb forms,
including infinitives and participles.

active passive

Present How does How is his

Simple one pronouncehis name? namepronounced?

Present Ati's helping Tara. Tara's being helped by

Continuous Ati.

Present Kid has served dinner. Dinner has been

Perfect served.
Present The police have been That house has been
Perfect watching that house for being watched for
Continuous weeks. weeks.

Past Simple They didn't fix my phone My phone wasn't fixed

yesterday. yesterday.

Past They were interrogating He was being

Continuous him when I called. interrogated when I
called.

Past Perfect I wondered why they I wondered why

hadn't invited me. I hadn't been invited.

Past Perfect She wasn't sure how long She wasn't sure how
Continuous they'd been following her. long she'd been being
followed.*

Future They will hang him at He will be hanged at

Simple dawn. dawn.

Future They won't be He won't be being

Continuous questioning him when questioned when you
you get there. get there.

Future They will have repaired Your car will have been
Perfect your car by 7pm. repaired by 7pm.

Future They'll have been She'll have been being

Perfect treating her for exactly treated for exactly
Continuous three months tomorrow. three months
tomorrow.*

infinitive I don’t want anyone to I don't want to be

disturb me. disturbed.

Perfect They seem to have taken It seems to have been

infitive it. taken.

participle I saw the cat eating it. I saw it being eaten by

the cat.

perfect Having finished my work, My work having been

participle I went home. finished, I went home.

gerund I insisted on them paying I insisted on being

me. paid.

going to Is he going to Is Thriller going to be

sing Thriller at the party? sung at the party?
used to Ram used to take care of Everything used to be
everything. taken care of by Ram.

can They can question him He can be

for six hours. questioned for six
hours.

could It could have badly hurt You could have

you. been badly hurt.

may The papers say they may The papers say he

release him. may be released.

might Somebody might buy it. It might be bought.

must Passengers Seat belts must be

must wear seat belts. worn.

should You should have told me. I should have been

told.

ought to They ought to He ought to be

forgive him. forgiven.
somebody with a gun. In the active voice, it would be: Somebody
killed him with a gun. Somebody is the agent. The gun is the
instrument.

The get-passive

Although we normally construct the passive with be + past

participle, it is also possible (in informal language) to use get + past
participle. So if France beat England at football, we could turn this
to passive and say "England were beaten by France" (be-passive) or
"England got beaten by France" (get-passive). And we might also
add: "But France will get thrashed by Russia."

For formal English and exams you should use the be-passive, but in
informal language people sometimes use the get-passive.

Forms of passive

The passive voice is not a tense itself. But for transitive verbs each
tense, as well as other verb forms such as infinitives and participles,
can be produced in the passive voice. Some of the more
complicated tenses (mostly perfect continuous) are rarely used in
the passive, but they are possible.

Here are some examples of the passive voice with many of the
possible forms using the verb sing:

infinitive to be sung

perfect infinitive to have been sung

participle sung
perfect participle having been sung

gerund being sung

Simple Continuous Perfect

am, are, is am, are, is being have, has been

Present sung sung sung

was, were was, were being have, has been

Past sung sung sung

will be sung will be being sung will have been

Future sung

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Visual references

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHPQpgkNJb0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePfmgMTgXl8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEwBaFHTBQs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzeI93MszMk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycxcgYUtGvE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxbQ2U3Uuv0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxbQ2U3Uuv0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye3-
vJkO0A8&list=PLQdxPoeR2Jn0qJLa4agMScqWJHewSBZeK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTQb42w7oig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe6dHB0MC94

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8fqGQXhrrU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKUNYp_Bc0g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEXTZjJUCM