What is the passive voice?

English Passive Voice

The passive voice is a way of expressing yourself in English (some people say passive form or passive tense, but the correct term is voice).

Active vs. Passive Voice

There are two voices in English grammar: active and passive. Voice is different from tense. There are 12 verb tenses in English, and any of these can be either active or passive (though some of these combinations almost never occur in actual usage).

Grammatical voice is a way of showing the relationship between action expressed a verb and the subject of that verb. When the subject does the action, the active voice is generally used. When the subject receives or undergoes the action, the passive voice is generally used.

The vast majority of the time, we use the active voice: over 95% of verbs in speech and fiction are active, and over 80% in academic and specialized texts.

This article explains the grammar of the passive voice in English, with lots of examples in each verb tense and aspect.

Why Do We Use the Passive Voice in English?

There are many different reasons that we use the passive voice. Again, the overall effect of using the passive voice is to focus on the person or thing that receives the action (the receiver or target), rather than the person or thing that does the action (the agent). But there are many reasons we might want to do this.

Because the receiver is the topic:

I just talked to my friend. He was accepted to Harvard!

Because the receiver is more important to the situation than the agent:

Katherine was hit by a car.

Because the agent is obvious:

The auditorium was built last year.

Because you want to be vague or avoid mentioning the agent:

I have to tell you something, Dad. The window was broken.

Because there is no known agent:

The car was stolen sometime during the night.

To create a more formal or academic style:

The answer has been sought by scientists for decades.

Forming the Passive Voice

When you want to transform a sentence from active form to the passive form: there are two main things to pay attention to.

First, we move the direct object to the subject position, before the verb. Simple. You can say that the object gets promoted to the role of subject, and the subject can be demoted to a prepositional phrase (including this is optional).

The second change is trickier: We also need to change the form of the verb. We need to put the main verb in the past participle. Be becomes been. Do or did becomes done. Go or went becomes gone. Cook becomes cooked. In a passive sentence, the main verb is always in the past participle.

Then we need to insert a be verb in whatever tense we are using before the main verb. If the sentence is in the simple past, use be in the simple past: was. If the sentence is in the simple future, use be in the simple future: will be. If the sentence is in the present perfect, use be in the present perfect: has been. If the sentence is in the present perfect, use be in the present perfect: is being.

The formula for a verb in the passive voice is [conjugated be verb] + [main verb in past participle].

The following section contains examples of every verb tense transformed into the passive voice.

The Get Passive

An alternate way to form the passive uses get as an auxiliary instead of be. With certain verbs, the get passive is very common. These include: get married, get hired, get fired, get picked up, get dropped off, get chosen, get arrested, get accepted.

In some situations, the get passive feels less formal than the be passive.

In some verb tenses, the auxiliary be is used to make the action continuous. When these tenses are made passive we still need to add another auxiliary. This means placing been and being together, which sounds awkward. For example the active sentence Trainees have been observing them. becomes the passive They have been being observed by trainees. Using the get passive can make sentences like this sound better: They have been getting observed by trainees.

Examples of Passive Voice for Each Verb Tense

Below you will find examples of every verb tense in the English passive voice. Some of these are so rare that we never use them. These are noted.

Simple Present

Spanish is spoken around the world
New species are discovered all the time.

Simple Past

Some money was found on Second Street.
The mosque was erected in 1873.

Simple Future

The old hospital will be demolished next month.
If it rains the concert will be cancelled.

Present Continuous

My car is being fixed.
Other options are being explored.

Past Continuous

The house was being painted so we couldn't touch anything.
Many new homes were being built at the time.

Future Continuous

I think a cure for cancer will have been developed by 2030.
This form is very unusual and awkward.

Present Perfect

The children have been given their dinner.
A decision has been made.

Past Perfect

She had been given a number of options already.
We had been told that the train would be there soon.

Future Perfect

By the end of this year, over a million lives will have been saved thanks to your donations.

*This form is very unusual and awkward.

Present Perfect Continuous

I have been getting sent from one doctor to the next all day long!
*This form is very unusual and awkward.

Past Perfect Continuous

We learned that we had been getting told the wrong information all year.
*This form is very unusual and awkward.

Future Perfect Continuous

This time tomorrow, the we will be getting driven to the airport.
*This form is very unusual and awkward.

Intransitive Verbs and the Passive

Remember, when we transform an active sentence into the passive, we are taking the direct object and moving it to the subject position. This means we must have a direct object to transform a sentence into the passive voice.

Transitive verbs have direct objects. Intransitive verbs do not have direct objects. This means that intransitive verbs cannot be transformed into the passive voice.

Imperative Mood and the Passive

How do you say “Shut the door.” in the passive? Learners try to quiz each other with questions like this.

The simplest answer is that you cannot put an imperative sentence in the passive voice in modern English because the passive voice requires an explicit subject and the imperative leaves out the subject.

Some people suggest that Let the door be shut. Is the passive form of Shut the door. This is a close workaround since it is an imperative sentence, and the verb shut is now passive. It is not, however, a direct transformation of the original sentence into the passive, because it introduces an entirely new verb: the causative let.

When Should You Use the Passive Voice?

This is a tricky question. Many inexperienced writers will overuse the passive voice to sound more formal or academic. This has led to the bad advice that you should “avoid the passive voice.”

There is no real answer except that you should use the passive voice when there is a reason to use it. Don’t just use it to sound smart. Good writing is always about making choices. Pay attention to how and when good writers choose to use it, and try to do the same!