The passive voice shifts the focus from who does the action to what receives the action. It is formed with "be + past participle" and is essential in academic, scientific, and journalistic writing.
The passive is formed with the correct tense of "be" + the past participle of the main verb. The subject of the active sentence becomes the object in the passive, and vice versa. "Someone built this house in 1920." → "This house was built in 1920." The agent (doer) can be included with "by": "…was built by a local architect."
Practice
The report ___ by the committee last Thursday.
The new policyannounced at next week's meeting.
Put the words in the correct order:
The passive exists in all major tenses. Present simple passive: "is/are + past participle". Past simple: "was/were + pp". Present perfect: "has/have been + pp". Past perfect: "had been + pp". Future: "will be + pp". Modal passives: "can/should/must + be + pp". The pattern is always some form of "be" + past participle.
Practice
All entries must ___ by midnight on Friday.
By the time the inspectors arrived, all the evidencedestroyed.
Put the words in the correct order:
Use the passive when: the doer is unknown ("My bike was stolen"), the doer is obvious or unimportant ("The suspect was arrested"), you want to focus on the action rather than who did it (scientific writing: "The solution was heated to 80°C"), or to avoid assigning blame ("Mistakes were made"). Overusing the passive in everyday conversation sounds unnatural.
Practice
Which sentence most appropriately uses the passive?
In the experiment, the cellsat 37°C for 48 hours.
Transform to passive: put in the correct order: