Active and passive voice

Voice shows whether the subject of a sentence does the action or receives it. In the active voice the subject acts: “The chef cooked the meal.” In the passive voice the subject receives the action: “The meal was cooked by the chef.” The meaning stays the same; the focus moves from the doer to what was done.

Make the object of the active sentence the new subject; use the right form of be for the tense, followed by the past participle of the main verb; then add by + the old subject if the doer matters. Change subject pronouns to object pronouns after by (she → her), and keep the tense the same.

Look for a form of be (is, are, was, were, been, being, be) followed by a past participle (written, built, cleaned), with the receiver of the action as the subject. “The house was built in 1990” is passive; “They built the house in 1990” is active. A by-phrase is a clue, but many passive sentences leave it out.

The present perfect continuous, past perfect continuous, future continuous and future perfect continuous are not normally used in the passive. Forms such as “has been being written” are grammatical in theory but sound unnatural, so textbooks and exams treat these tenses as having no passive form.

No. Only verbs with an object (transitive verbs) have a passive. Verbs with no object, such as happen, arrive, sleep, die, go and seem, cannot be passive: “The accident happened”, never “The accident was happened”. A few transitive verbs such as have (possess), resemble and suit also resist the passive.

Use the passive when the doer is unknown (“My phone was stolen”), obvious (“He was arrested”), unimportant, or when you want to focus on the action or result, as in scientific and formal writing (“The samples were heated to 80°C”). Prefer the active when the doer matters, because it is usually shorter and clearer.

No. The passive is correct English and is the right choice in many contexts, especially reports, science and news. Style guides warn against overusing it, because long chains of passive sentences hide who did what and read as vague. Mix both voices and choose the one that puts the important information first.

Keep the question form and apply the passive to the verb. For yes/no questions, put the auxiliary first: “Did they finish the work?” → “Was the work finished by them?” For who questions, use by whom: “Who broke the vase?” → “By whom was the vase broken?”

Use let + object + be + past participle: “Shut the gate” → “Let the gate be shut.” For polite requests, many grammars prefer you are requested to: “Please help me” → “You are requested to help me.” Both patterns appear in school exams.

Either object can become the subject. “They gave me a prize” can be “I was given a prize” (the person as subject, the more natural choice) or “A prize was given to me”. Verbs like give, send, offer, show, tell and teach work this way.

No. Leave it out when the doer is unknown, obvious or unimportant: “English is spoken here”, “The road was repaired last week”. Include it when the doer is new or important information: “The theory was proposed by Einstein.” Most passive sentences in real English have no by-phrase.

Modal + be + past participle: “You must finish the work” → “The work must be finished.” It works for every modal: can be done, should be checked, may be delayed, will be sent, might be cancelled. For the past, use modal + have been + past participle: “It should have been checked.”

“Breakfast is served from 7 to 10.” “Your order has been shipped.” “The meeting was postponed.” “Smoking is not allowed.” “The match will be shown live.” Notices, news and messages from companies use the passive constantly, because the action matters more than who performed it.

Because happen has no object, there is nothing to become the subject of a passive sentence, so it has no passive form. The correct sentence is simply “It happened.” The same applies to occur, arrive, appear, die, exist and remain, which are common sources of this error.

Yes. Academic passages in Interactive Reading use the passive often (“the results were analysed”), and Read & Complete damages its auxiliaries and participles. In Writing, one or two well-placed passives show grammatical range, while an error such as “was wrote” costs accuracy.

Learn the chart once, so you know which form of be each tense takes, then convert ten sentences a day in both directions. Check every past participle (written, not wrote) and every by-phrase pronoun (by her, not by she). The quiz and worksheet on this page give you both drills.