The Passive Voice
The passive changes the camera angle of a sentence: it puts the action or result first. Learn to build it across tenses and decide when it improves the message.
About 20 minutes · Guided practice · 10-question mastery test
By the end of this lesson, you can…
The essential rules
Form: be + past participle
Keep the tense in be; the main verb becomes a past participle. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject.
They deliver parcels. → Parcels are delivered.
Choose the focus
Use passive voice when the doer is unknown, obvious, unimportant, or less important than the action or result.
My bike was stolen. · The results will be announced Friday.
Add the agent only if useful
Use by when the agent is new, surprising or important. Do not automatically include it.
The novel was written by Toni Morrison. · The road was repaired.
See the pattern
| Tense/form | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Present simple | They clean the rooms. | The rooms are cleaned. |
| Past simple | They built the bridge. | The bridge was built. |
| Present perfect | They have sent the email. | The email has been sent. |
| Modal | They must finish it. | It must be finished. |
Three mistakes to avoid
The passive needs a form of be.
Use the past participle.
Present perfect passive is has/have been + participle.
Guided practice
Try each item before opening the answer.
1. Change to passive: People speak English in many countries.
English is spoken in many countries.
2. Change to passive: Someone stole my phone last night.
My phone was stolen last night. The unknown agent is omitted.
3. Change to passive: They will publish the results tomorrow.
The results will be published tomorrow.
4. Is passive better? “Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.”
Usually keep the active because the famous agent is important. Passive is possible if Hamlet is already the topic.
Mastery test
Target: 8/10