The passive voice

The passive voice is used when who did the action matters less than the action itself or the thing it affects. It is extremely common in scientific, official and news writing, so you need it both to understand Reading texts and to write in a formal style. Exams test forming the passive in the right tense, turning active sentences into passive ones, and structures such as It is said that….

§1. What the passive is and how it is formed

In the active voice the subject does the action: They build houses. In the passive the subject receives the action: Houses are built. The object of the active sentence (houses) becomes the subject of the passive one.

be carries the tense and the person; V3 never changes: is made, was made, will be made, has been made.

Only transitive verbs (verbs that take an object) can be passive. Intransitive verbs such as happen, arrive, die, sleep, appear, occur, exist have no passive: ✗ It was happened → ✓ It happened.

To name the doer, use by: The book was written by Abdulla Qodiriy. For a tool or instrument, use with: The door was opened with a key.

§2. The passive in different tenses

Each tense uses the matching form of be; the main verb is always V3.

Examples: The road is being repaired. The results have been published. The letter must be signed. The bridge is going to be opened next year.

Questions and negatives use the first auxiliary: Was the window broken? The work hasn’t been finished yet. Will the meeting be cancelled?

Passive Perfect Continuous forms (has been being made) are hardly ever used; the passive Present Perfect is used instead.

Worked example

The new stadium ___ (build) at the moment.

1. at the moment shows an action in progress now, so Present Continuous.
2. The stadium does not build anything; it is built, so the meaning is passive.
3. Present Continuous passive: is/are being + V3; the subject is singular → is being.
4. The V3 of build is built.
5. Answer: The new stadium is being built at the moment.

§3. When the passive is used

• The doer is unknown: My bike was stolen.
• The doer is unimportant or obvious: The patient was taken to hospital. The criminal was arrested. (obviously by the police)
• Scientific and formal style, where process and result matter: The samples were heated to 100 °C. Smoking is not permitted. Applications must be submitted by Friday.
• Keeping the topic of a text: Navoi is a great poet. He is known all over the world.
• Putting new information at the end: This theory was proposed by Einstein. (the focus is on Einstein)

When the doer is people, someone, they, somebody, it is left out in the passive: Someone has stolen my bag. → My bag has been stolen.

§4. Special cases

Verbs with two objects (give, send, show, offer, tell, teach, pay). Either object can become the subject, but the person is more natural:

• They gave me a prize. → I was given a prize. (more common) / A prize was given to me.

Prepositional verbs keep the preposition after the verb:

• They looked after the children. → The children were looked after.
• Everybody laughed at him. → He was laughed at.

Impersonal structures (say, believe, think, know, report, expect, consider), typical of news and academic texts:

• People say that he is rich. → It is said that he is rich. / He is said to be rich.

`have something done` — arranging for someone else to do a service for you:

• I had my hair cut. (at the hairdresser’s) We are having our flat painted.

Worked example

People believe that the city was founded more than 2,000 years ago. Begin with The city….

1. The main verb believe is present → The city is believed.
2. The action in the clause (was founded) happened earlier, in the past.
3. The past needs a perfect infinitive, and since it is passive: to have been + V3.
4. Answer: The city is believed to have been founded more than 2,000 years ago.

§5. A routine for turning active into passive

1. Find the object of the active sentence — it becomes the new subject.
2. Identify the tense of the original verb (will announce → Future Simple).
3. Put be in that tense, agreeing with the new subject.
4. Change the main verb to V3.
5. Add the doer with by if it matters; leave out people, someone, they.
6. Remember to change pronouns: me → I, them → they.

Worked example

Someone is cleaning the classrooms now. → passive.

1. The object is the classrooms, the new (plural) subject.
2. The tense is Present Continuous (is cleaning).
3. Plural subject → are being.
4. clean → cleaned.
5. someone is left out.
6. Answer: The classrooms are being cleaned now.

§6. The passive and writing style

The passive makes a text formal and objective, but too much of it makes the text heavy. A rule for writing: if the process or result matters, use the passive; if the doer matters, use the active. In reports and graph descriptions the passive is very useful: Over 500 students were surveyed. It can be seen that sales increased. In letters and stories the active sounds livelier.

Distinguish the passive from an adjective: The door was closed at 8 (passive — someone closed it) versus The door was closed when I came (a state — the door was shut). In the second sentence closed is an adjective.

Check yourself

1. English ___ (speak) all over the world.

2. The museum ___ (open) in 1997.

3. Your order ___ (already / send).

4. The car ___ (repair) when I arrived.

5. The accident ___ (happen) at night.

6. The results ___ (announce) tomorrow.

7. This form must ___ (sign) by both parents.

8. The window was opened ___ a stick. Which preposition?

Common mistakes

• Leaving out be: ✗ The house built in 1990 → ✓ The house was built in 1990.
• V2 instead of V3: ✗ was wrote → ✓ was written.
• Making intransitive verbs passive: ✗ was happened, was died → ✓ happened, died.
• Adding an unnecessary doer: ✗ was stolen by someone → ✓ was stolen.
• Dropping the preposition of a prepositional verb: ✗ The children were looked → ✓ were looked after.
• Mixing up by and with: ✗ opened by a key → ✓ opened with a key.