The Passive Voice

Advanced · Voice & Speech

In an active sentence, the subject does the action: "The chef cooked the meal." In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action: "The meal was cooked." We flip the focus onto the thing that the action happened to.

Use the passive when the action or the result matters more than who did it, or when the doer is unknown, obvious, or unimportant. It is very common in news, science, and formal writing.

How to build it

object + be (in the right tense) + past participle (+ by + doer)

Rules & examples

1. Form: take the object, add the correct form of "be", then the past participle.

   The old object becomes the new subject.

   • Active: They built the house in 1990.
   • Passive: The house was built in 1990.
2. Add "by + doer" only when that information is important.

   Often we leave it out because it is unknown or obvious.

   • The novel was written by Orwell. (important)
   • My car was stolen. (we don't know by whom)
3. Very common when the doer is unknown or general.

   When "someone" or "people in general" did it.

   • English is spoken here.
   • The road is being repaired.
4. The passive works in every tense — just change the form of "be".

   be = is/are, was/were, is being, has been, will be, etc.

   • The report is being written. (present continuous)
   • The work has been finished. (present perfect)
5. Verbs with two objects can make two passive versions.

   Either object can become the subject.

   • She was given a prize. / A prize was given to her.

Tips to remember

• You need the past participle (3rd form): build→built, write→written, give→given, do→done.
• To change active to passive: object → front, add "be" in the same tense, verb → past participle, subject → "by..." (optional).

Common mistakes

• ✗ The house built in 1990. → ✓ The house was built in 1990. — The passive always needs a form of "be" + the past participle.