Introduction

The passive voice is most commonly used for:

• formal or academic writing; essays, reports, articles
• news: headlines, reporting.

We use the passive voice when the object (person or thing) receiving the action is more important than the person or thing performing the action, for example:

• The fire was started by Robin.

or when we do not know who or what performed the action:

• My car was stolen last night.

Form

We make the passive voice with:
"be" + past participle of the main verb.

The present simple passive - examples:

Object	Verb "be"	Main verb	Complement	Subject
The experiment	is isn't is not	carried out	every week	by scientists at the university.
The experiments	are aren't are not	carried out	every week.

Verb "be"	Object	Main verb	Complement	Subject
Are	the experiments	carried out	every week?

The past simple passive - examples:

Object	Verb "be"	Main verb	Complement	Subject
The experiment	was wasn't was not	carried out	every week	by scientists at the university.
The experiments	were weren't were not	carried out	every week.

Verb "be"	Object	Main verb	Complement	Subject
Were	the experiments	carried out	every week?

The passive voice can be used in any tense:

Object (receives the action)	Verb "be" (various tenses)	Main verb (past participle)
The dogs	are	fed.
	are being
	were
	were being
	are going to be
	will be
	have been
	will be being
	have been being
	had been

In the examples above we do not know who is feeding the dogs. It is not important. What is important is that the dogs are receiving food.

If we want to include the person or thing performing the action, we can use the preposition "by":

• The dogs are being fed by a charity worker.

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Practice

Complete the sentences with the correct past simple passive form of the verb in brackets:

• The Eiffel Tower in 1889. (build)
   
• Two World Wars during the 20th century. (fight)
   
• How many sonnets by William Shakespeare? (write)
   
• The internet by many different people. (create)
   

Check my answers

Further practice

• The orchestra ____ by Mario Lopez.


be conducted will be conducted will being conducted conducts



• The houses ____.


has been demolished be demolished have demolished have been demolished



• The costumes ____ by the art department.


is being prepared are being prepared are been prepared is prepared



• The new law ____.


going to be passed have been passed will passed is going to be passed



• The trees ____ cut down.


were been was being were being had being 



• The grass ____ cut too many times.


had been have been is been will been

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Further language points

We can employ the passive voice when we do not want to say who or what performed the action:

• "I’m sorry but your vase was broken."
• "My homework was lost."
• "The accounts have been messed up."

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Modal verbs can be used in the passive voice:

Present

Active – The staff should make the beds every day.
Passive – The beds should be made every day.

Past
Active – The staff should have made the beds every day.
Passive – The beds should have been made every day.

Advanced language point

Further examples of the passive voice:

• future perfect –
  The dogs will have been fed.
• future perfect continuous –
  The dogs will have been being fed.
• past perfect continuous –
  The dogs had been being fed.

Whilst grammatically correct, the perfect continuous tenses are not usually used in the passive voice. The situation does not usually arise and they sound rather awkward.