The Passive Voice
The Passive Voice is used all the time in English, so it is worth taking time out to understand its form and use.
Let’s look at the example below:
- I ate two slices of toast
This is known as an active sentence where the subject goes first (the person or thing that does the action), followed by the verb, and finally the object (the person or thing that the action happens to). So, in this sentence, the subject is ‘I’, the verb is ate and the object is two slices of toast.
But we don’t always need to construct sentences this way. We might want to put the object first, or perhaps we don’t want to say who did the action. In this case, we use the passive which always puts the object first:
- Two slices of toast were eaten (we can add ‘by me’ if we want, but it isn’t necessary)
How to form the Passive in English
We form the passive by putting the verb ‘to be’ into whatever tense is appropriate and adding the past participle.
| Tense | Active | Passive |
| Present Simple | I eat bananas | Bananas are eaten (by me) |
| Present Continuous | I am eating bananas | Bananas are being eaten (by me) |
| Past Simple | I ate bananas | Bananas were eaten (by me) |
| Past Continuous | I was eating bananas | Bananas were being eaten (by me) |
| Present Perfect | I have eaten bananas | Bananas have been eaten (by me) |
| Past Perfect | I had eaten bananas | Bananas had been eaten (by me) |
| Future Simple | I will eat bananas | Bananas will be eaten (by me) |
| Future Perfect
|
I will have eaten bananas | Bananas will have been eaten (by me) |
The use of the Passive
There are several ways we can use the passive. Let´s deal with each one separately:
1) When we want to change the focus of the sentence:
- The telephone was invented in 1876 by Graham Bell. (Here we are more interested in the telephone than the inventor)
2) When who or what causes the action is unknown or unimportant or obvious or ‘people in general’:
- He was arrested (obvious agent, the police).
- My bike has been stolen (unknown agent).
- The road is being repaired (unimportant agent).
- The form can be obtained from the tax office (people in general).
3) In factual or scientific writing:
- Microscopic organisms are placed in a test tube and the data entered into the computer.
4) In formal writing instead of using someone/ people/ they (these can be used in speaking or
informal writing):
- The article will be finished next month.
5) In order to put the new information at the end of the sentence to improve style:
- Three books are used regularly in the class. The books were written by Dr. Grant