Lesson 30 of 36 · advanced
Passive Voice
Shift the focus from who does an action to what happens.
Forming the passive
Subject (receiver) + be + past participle (+ by + agent).
- The cake was baked by Maria.
- The email was sent yesterday.
When to use it
When the action is more important than who did it, or the doer is unknown or obvious.
- The bridge was built in 1990.
- My phone was stolen.
Active to passive
Move the object of the active sentence to the subject position, and add a form of 'be' + past participle.
- Active: Chefs prepare the meals. → Passive: The meals are prepared by chefs.
Passive across different tenses
The passive can be formed in almost any tense — just change the form of 'be' while keeping the past participle.
- Present simple: The room is cleaned daily.
- Past simple: The room was cleaned yesterday.
- Present perfect: The room has been cleaned.
- Future: The room will be cleaned tomorrow.
More examples in context
The passive is especially common in news, science, and formal writing.
- The suspect was arrested last night.
- Millions of copies of this book have been sold.
- The new policy will be announced next week.
- Rice is grown throughout Asia.
- The results were published in a scientific journal.
- This vaccine is being tested in several countries.
Common mistakes to avoid
These are frequent passive voice errors, and how to correct them.
- ✗ The cake was bake by her. → ✓ The cake was baked by her. (use the past participle)
- ✗ The window is broke. → ✓ The window is broken.
- ✗ This song sang by a famous artist. → ✓ This song was sung by a famous artist.
- ✗ The email was sent by from him. → ✓ The email was sent by him.
Quick practice
Rewrite each sentence in the passive voice, then check your answer.
- Someone cleans this office every day. → ___ (answer: This office is cleaned every day.)
- They will announce the winner tomorrow. → ___ (answer: The winner will be announced tomorrow.)
- A famous architect designed this building. → ___ (answer: This building was designed by a famous architect.)
- They have cancelled the flight. → ___ (answer: The flight has been cancelled.)
- Someone is repairing my car. → ___ (answer: My car is being repaired.)