Passive voice — across all tenses

In an active sentence, the subject does the action: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare. The action is the same; what changes is the focus.

English uses passives constantly — in news, science, instructions, and any moment when the doer doesn’t matter or the result matters more. At B1, you need to recognize and produce passives across all the tenses you already know.

The good news: the formula is universal. be (in any tense) + V3. Once you have that, the rest is just stretching the be through the tense system.

Form

be (conjugated in the right tense) + V3 (past participle).

The subject of the passive sentence is what would have been the object of the active sentence.

V3 forms are the same as in Present Perfect and Past Perfect: regular = -ed, irregular memorized.

Passive across the tenses

Stretch be through every tense; bolt V3 on the end. Here’s the full table.

The pattern: take the be form from the active tense, drop the active main verb, and put V3 in its place.

Tenses generally avoided in passive

A few tenses are awkward in passive and rarely used:

• Present perfect continuous passive (has been being cleaned) — clumsy, almost never used. Rephrase actively.
• Past perfect continuous passive — same issue.
• Future continuous passive (will be being cleaned) — also rare.

If a sentence forces you toward these, restructure with an active voice or a different tense.

Negatives and questions

Negative: insert not in the be phrase.

• The office isn’t cleaned on Sundays.
• The package wasn’t delivered yesterday.
• The car hasn’t been fixed yet.
• The problem can’t be solved quickly.

Question: invert the be (or auxiliary) with the subject.

• Is the office cleaned every day?
• Was the bike stolen from the garage?
• Has the report been sent?
• Will the road be repaired soon?
• Can the file be opened in this app?

When to use the passive

Passive isn’t a fancier active. It’s a different tool for a different job. Use it when:

1. The agent is unknown or irrelevant

You don’t know who did it, or it doesn’t matter who did it. The action and the object are what count.

• My bike was stolen. (I don’t know who.)
• The window was broken. (Doesn’t matter who.)
• This building was constructed in 1900. (The exact builders are unknown / unimportant.)
• English is spoken in Canada. (Everyone — no specific agent.)

This is by far the most common reason for passive in everyday speech.

2. Focus on the object or the result

Even if the agent is known, you put the object first to highlight it.

• The package was delivered yesterday. (focus: the package)
• The Mona Lisa was painted by da Vinci. (focus: the painting; agent named because famous)
• Three suspects have been arrested. (focus: arrests, not the police)
• The new policy was approved unanimously. (focus: policy, not the board)

News headlines, business updates, status reports lean heavily on this passive.

3. Formal / scientific / impersonal style

Lab reports, manuals, official documents avoid naming a doer to sound objective.

• The sample was heated to 100°C. (not “We heated the sample”)
• All payments must be received by the 15th.
• It has been observed that…
• Errors will be corrected in the next release.

Active voice in technical writing can sound chatty or self-promoting; passive sounds neutral.

4. Polite distance / blame avoidance

When you don’t want to point fingers:

• Mistakes were made. (the famous political dodge — never says who made them)
• Your account has been deactivated. (we did it, but the passive softens it)
• The report wasn’t submitted on time. (no need to name the missing employee)

by + agent — when to include it

The by + agent phrase tells you who did the action. Only include it when the agent is informative.

Use by + agent when:

• The agent is famous, important, or surprising: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.
• The agent is the new information: The cake was made by my grandmother.

Skip by + agent when:

• The agent is obvious or unknown: My bike was stolen. (probably a thief — no need to say it)
• The agent is “people in general”: English is spoken in Canada. (we don’t say “by Canadians”)
• The agent is “they / someone / the company”: Your order will be shipped soon.

About 80% of natural passive sentences in English have no by phrase at all. Don’t add it just because you can.

by vs with

• by = the agent (who did it): The cake was eaten by the dog.
• with = the instrument (what was used): The cake was cut with a knife.

You can have both: The window was broken by a kid with a baseball.

AmE notes

In American English, gotten is the standard past participle of get in many passive contexts. British English uses got.

Exception: have got meaning “have/possess” stays got in both varieties. I’ve got two sisters (= I have two sisters) — gotten is wrong here.

In casual AmE, get-passive replaces be-passive all the time, especially for negative or unexpected events:

• My phone got stolen yesterday. (more conversational than was stolen)
• He got fired last week.
• The car got hit by a truck.

The get-passive feels more dynamic and emphasizes the event happening. The be-passive feels more neutral and result-focused. Both are fine in speech; in formal writing, prefer be-passive.

Pronunciation notes

• been in passives (has been done) reduces to /bən/ or /bɪn/: It’s been done → /ɪts bən dʌn/.
• was /wəz/ unstressed; were /wər/ unstressed. It was made → /ɪt wəz meɪd/.
• being keeps its full vowel /ˈbiɪŋ/ — don’t reduce it. It’s being repaired → /ɪts ˈbiɪŋ rɪˈpɛrd/.
• V3 -ed endings still follow /t/, /d/, /ɪd/ rules: fixed /fɪkst/, cleaned /klind/, painted /ˈpeɪntɪd/.

Common Russian-speaker mistakes

1. Forgetting V3 — using V2 instead: The window was broke → The window was broken. Past simple is V2; passive needs V3.
2. Wrong tense of be: The road is repaired now (sounds like a permanent state) → The road is being repaired now (action in progress). Match be to the right tense for the meaning.
3. Russian-style impersonal active where English wants passive: They speak English in Canada (clunky) → English is spoken in Canada. English uses passive for “in general” statements; Russian uses indefinite они.
4. Adding by unnecessarily: My bike was stolen by someone → My bike was stolen. Drop by + someone/people/them when the agent is unknown or generic.
5. Confusing by and with: The cake was cut by a knife → The cake was cut with a knife. By = doer; with = instrument.
6. Passive with intransitive verbs: I was happened to be there → I happened to be there. Verbs without an object (happen, occur, arrive, sleep) have no passive form.
7. Wrong V3 forms: was wrote, was took, was eat → was written, was taken, was eaten.

Summary

• Form: be (in any tense) + V3.
• Stretch be through any tense: is cleaned, was cleaned, has been cleaned, will be cleaned, can be cleaned, should have been cleaned.
• Use passive when: agent is unknown / irrelevant; focus is on the object/result; style is formal / scientific; you want polite distance.
• by + agent: only when informative. Skip it for unknown / generic agents.
• by = doer; with = instrument.
• AmE: gotten is the V3 in most passive contexts (except have got = possess); get-passive (got stolen, got fired) is conversational.

Next lesson: passive with two objects, and have/get something done — service English for haircuts, repairs, and getting things done by other people.