Passive Voice in English

In Brief

The English passive uses a form of be + past participle: The door was locked. It puts the action or the person or thing affected by it in focus, while the doer can be omitted or added with by: The door was locked by the caretaker. The tense is shown by be; the past participle stays the same.

Overview

English clauses can present the same event from different viewpoints. In an active clause, the subject (the person or thing the clause is about) performs the action: A technician repaired the printer. In the passive version, the receiver of that action becomes the subject: The printer was repaired by a technician. The basic event has not changed, but the focus has.

The passive is especially useful when the doer is unknown, obvious, unimportant, or deliberately left unnamed. It is common in news reports, instructions, notices, scientific writing, and descriptions of processes: Three people were injured; The samples are stored at room temperature. It also occurs naturally in everyday conversation: My bike was stolen.

At B1, the essential skill is to recognize and build be + past participle in common tenses. A past participle is the verb form used in combinations such as has written and was written. Regular participles end in -ed (cleaned, delivered), while irregular ones must be learned (made, sent, written, taken).

How It Works

From active to passive

A typical active clause has this pattern:

doer + verb + receiver

The chef prepared the meal.

The receiver is the object (the person or thing affected by the verb). To make the clause passive:

1. Move the receiver into the subject position: The meal...
2. Put be in the same tense as the active verb: ...was...
3. Change the main verb to its past participle: ...prepared.
4. Add the original doer with by only if it is useful: The meal was prepared by the chef.

The result is:

receiver + be + past participle (+ by + doer)

Only verbs that can take an object normally form this kind of passive. You can say Someone opened the window, so The window was opened is possible. But arrive has no object in The guests arrived, so there is no normal passive form such as The guests were arrived.

The tense belongs to be

The participle does not change for person, number, or tense. Change the form of be to place the event in time.

Tense or form	Passive pattern	Example
Present simple	am/is/are + participle	The office is cleaned every evening.
Past simple	was/were + participle	The office was cleaned yesterday.
Future with will	will be + participle	The office will be cleaned tomorrow.
Present perfect	has/have been + participle	The office has been cleaned.
Present continuous	am/is/are being + participle	The office is being cleaned now.
Past continuous	was/were being + participle	The office was being cleaned when I arrived.
Modal verb	modal + be + participle	The office must be cleaned.
Infinitive	to be + participle	The office needs to be cleaned.

The continuous passive contains both being and a past participle. Compare They are painting the house with The house is being painted. The perfect passive contains been: They have painted the house becomes The house has been painted. Mixing up being and been is a common source of errors.

Negatives and questions

Because be is an auxiliary verb (a helping verb), passive negatives place not after it:

• The package was not delivered.
• The results have not been announced.
• The room should not be used.

For questions, place the first auxiliary before the subject:

• Was the package delivered?
• Have the results been announced?
• When will the road be reopened?

Do not add do or did: Was it sent?, not Did it be sent?

When to include a by-agent

The phrase beginning with by names the agent (the person or thing that performs the action). Include it when that information is important, surprising, or needed to identify the work or event:

• The novel was written by George Orwell.
• The winning goal was scored by the goalkeeper.

Omit it when the agent is unknown (My wallet was stolen), obvious (He was arrested), general (English is spoken in many countries), or simply less important than the result. A passive sentence without by is complete.

Do not confuse by with a phrase naming an instrument or method. The agent uses by, but the tool often uses with: The window was broken by a burglar with a hammer.

Agreement with the new subject

The form of be agrees with the passive subject:

• The letter was sent.
• The letters were sent.
• The information is stored securely.

The participle remains unchanged: sent and stored do not become plural.

Examples in Context

English	Meaning in plain English	Note
English is spoken here.	People speak English here.	Present simple; the speakers are general.
The letter was sent yesterday.	Someone sent the letter yesterday.	Past simple; the letter is the focus.
The house is being painted.	Someone is painting the house now.	Present continuous passive.
The book was written by Orwell.	Orwell wrote the book.	The named author is important.
Breakfast is served from seven to ten.	The staff serve breakfast during those hours.	A routine in a hotel or café.
My phone has been stolen.	Someone has stolen my phone.	Present perfect; the present result matters.
The road will be closed next weekend.	The authorities will close the road next weekend.	Future passive.
All applications must be submitted online.	Applicants must submit everything online.	Modal passive in an instruction.
The suspect was being questioned when the lawyer arrived.	Police were questioning the suspect at that time.	Past continuous passive.
The final decision has not been made yet.	Nobody has made the final decision yet.	Negative present perfect passive.
Were you invited to the meeting?	Did someone invite you to the meeting?	Passive question.
The cake was cut with a very sharp knife.	Someone used a sharp knife to cut the cake.	With introduces the instrument.
Two flights were cancelled because of the storm.	The airline cancelled two flights because of the storm.	The affected flights matter more than the airline.
This product is made in Italy.	People manufacture this product in Italy.	Place of production, not an agent.

These paraphrases show the relationship between active and passive clauses. They are not always equally natural. For example, People speak English here and English is spoken here are both normal, but a notice is more likely to use the passive because the available language is the useful information.

Common Mistakes

Leaving out be

• Wrong: The documents sent yesterday.
• Right: The documents were sent yesterday.
• Why: A standard passive needs a form of be before the past participle. Without it, this is not a complete finite clause.

Using the past tense instead of the past participle

• Wrong: The song was wrote in 1965.
• Right: The song was written in 1965.
• Why: The passive requires the past participle. Irregular verbs may have different past-tense and participle forms: wrote/written, took/taken, saw/seen.

Putting the tense on the main verb

• Wrong: The parcel did be delivered yesterday.
• Right: The parcel was delivered yesterday.
• Why: In a passive clause, be carries the tense. The main verb remains a past participle.

Confusing been and being

• Wrong: The kitchen has being cleaned.
• Right: The kitchen has been cleaned.
• Why: Perfect forms use been. Continuous passive forms use being: The kitchen is being cleaned now.

Adding an unnecessary by-phrase

• Awkward: My car was stolen by someone.
• Better: My car was stolen.
• Why: By someone adds no useful information. One purpose of the passive is to leave an unknown or irrelevant agent unmentioned.

Making every active sentence passive

• Awkward: The station was arrived at by us at noon.
• Better: We arrived at the station at noon.
• Why: A passive may be technically possible with some verb-preposition combinations, but it can sound heavy. Use the active when the doer is the natural topic and there is no reason to hide or delay it.

Usage Notes

Passive does not automatically mean formal

Passives are frequent in formal and technical writing, but they are not limited to it. I was born in Leeds, We were invited to dinner, and My bag was stolen are ordinary conversational English. Choose the passive for viewpoint and information flow, not merely to make a sentence sound more sophisticated.

Active writing is not always better

Advice to “avoid the passive” is too broad. Active clauses are often shorter and make responsibility clear: The committee rejected the proposal. However, the passive is better when the receiver is already the topic, when the agent is unavailable, or when a process matters more than the operator: The mixture is heated to 80°C.

A passive can conceal responsibility: Mistakes were made does not say who made them. That may be tactful, evasive, or simply irrelevant depending on context. In clear professional writing, add the agent or use an active clause when readers need to know who is responsible.

A participle after be is not always an action passive

Some combinations describe a state rather than an event:

• The shop is closed. — It is not open now.
• The door was closed by the guard. — The guard performed the action.

Context often gives the intended meaning. An agent phrase strongly favors the event reading. Do not assume every be + participle combination answers “Who did it?”; some participles function much like adjectives.

Keep important information near the end

English often places new or longer information later in a sentence. The passive can support that pattern: The award was presented by the director of the International Science Foundation. Here the long, new agent fits naturally at the end. This is a matter of emphasis, not just grammar.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

The core B1 pattern extends into several structures that you will meet at B2 and beyond.

Passives with two objects

Some active verbs can have a person and a thing: They gave Maya a prize. Either object may become the passive subject:

• Maya was given a prize.
• A prize was given to Maya.

The first pattern is especially common with verbs such as give, send, offer, tell, and show. Not every verb permits both patterns, so learn common examples as complete phrases.

Get passives

Informal English sometimes uses get + past participle: He got hurt, They got married, My keys got lost. This can emphasize a change, an unexpected event, or the subject's involvement. It is not a simple replacement for be in every context; The report got completed by Friday is less neutral than The report was completed by Friday.

Causative have

In I had my car repaired, the subject arranged for another person to do the work. This is called a causative construction because the subject causes or arranges the action rather than performing it. Its form resembles a passive, but its meaning and grammar deserve separate study.

Reporting passives

Formal news and academic styles use patterns such as It is believed that the painting is genuine and The painting is believed to be genuine. These allow a writer to report a claim without making the source the subject. They are useful, but they go beyond the basic B1 passive.

Prepositional passives

In some passive clauses, the preposition remains after the verb:

• The children were looked after by their aunt.
• This issue has already been dealt with.

The active equivalents are Their aunt looked after the children and Someone has dealt with this issue. Keep the verb and preposition together; look after and deal with act as complete units here.

Practice Tips

1. Transform sentences in pairs. Start with ten active sentences and rewrite them in the passive. Keep the tense unchanged, then decide whether the by-agent adds useful information.
2. Highlight the three parts. In real texts, mark the passive subject, the form of be, and the past participle in different ways. This makes long forms such as has not yet been approved easier to recognize.
3. Practice with realistic genres. Describe how coffee is made, rewrite a short news report, or make workplace notices. Then read each sentence aloud and ask: “Is the action or receiver really the best topic?”

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Past Simple Regular Verbs — helps you recognize and form regular -ed participles and past-tense forms.
• Next steps: Advanced Passive Structures — develops passives with two objects, get + past participle, and have something done.